Jay Arehart is an Instructor in the Department of Civil, Environmental聽and Architectural Engineering and teaches courses related to the built environment. Jay received his BS and MS from CU Boulder's Architectural Engineering program in 2017 and is currently working towards a PhD focused on evaluating the extent to which carbon can be sequestered and stored by building materials.
In addition to teaching at CU Boulder, Jay teaches online courses to university students across the world on the design and construction of footbridges with the non-profit organization Engineers in Action. Most recently, Jay worked with Project Drawdown as a research fellow and just returned from Scotland where he was a visiting scholar at Edinburgh Napier University.
Jay is excited to join the Architectural Engineering faculty this year and looks forward to teaching some of the courses that inspired him as a student.
What has been your favorite work or personal project so far?
Helping to start a footbridge program in Eswatini (a small kingdom in Southern Africa). This project started when I was an undergraduate at CU, and we have been working to create a self-sustaining program for many years now. At first it was figuring out the technical and logistical problems of acquiring materials and funding, but it quickly turned into a social and educational challenge, which has taken years to figure out. It has been interesting to work on the many different challenges that extend far beyond the technical.
What do you most like to do to unwind?
Trail running has been my go-to for years. Listening to my favorite music and running through the hills of Boulder is hard to beat.
One thing you're willing to spend way too much on...
Recently, working from home has led me to spend way too much on single-origin coffee. But it's definitely been worth it.
Your coworkers can always count on you to...
Listen to your ideas or problems and give candid feedback about how I think it will work out. I enjoy working through problems with others, be it in how to structure a particular class discussion, or make other changes in the classroom. I enjoy trying new teaching methods in my classroom and especially enjoy discussing successes and failure with other instructors.
What is your motto?
There will always be more things to do tomorrow, so be sure that you are enjoying what you are doing today and give it all your focus.