As a child, Angelica Solomon was always a little nervous crossing the historic Decatur Bridge that connects Nebraska and Iowa. Still, she and her family crossed it countless times. Traveling from their home on the nearby Winnebago Reservation, the bridge took them on road trips, visits to Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo or just everyday errands.
Today, Angelica is one of the engineers responsible for making sure the Decatur Bridge — as well many others across the state — remains safe for other Nebraska families.
“I specifically remember the Decatur Bridge and being a little scared every time we would drive over it when I was a kid,” she smiles. “I’ve inspected that bridge twice now, and it’s brought back so many incredible memories. It’s the only bridge for 20 miles north or south along the Missouri River, so it’s a huge deal for people in those nearby communities — including Winnebago.”
Like so much in our day-to-day lives, we don’t really think about bridges when we’re using them — they just take us where we need to go. Before she graduated from the College of Engineering and became a bridge engineer with Olsson, that’s how Angelica thought of bridges, too.
“This whole bridge thing wasn’t really part of my plan. Actually, it was a bit of a shock when I was first put on this team,” laughs Angelica. “What’s really made me come to appreciate them, though, are the site visits and inspections we do. Seeing so many people driving on them each day has made me realize how essential bridges are to our lives.”
To date, Angelica has worked on over 20 bridges across the state and inspected close to 90, helping Nebraskans everywhere safely arrive where they need to go. It was a family tie, though, that helped Angelica build her own bridge toward Nebraska’s College of Engineering and arrive in her career.
Angelica spent most of her time growing up in New Mexico but always considered the Winnebago Tribal Reservation home. It’s where most of her family lived, where she visited every summer and where she developed a lifelong obsession with Nebraska football.
“Because my mom graduated from Nebraska, I just had this absolute love for Husker football. I’ve been watching since I was a baby. So, even though I started college in New Mexico, I think I always knew I wanted to end up at Nebraska.”
By the time she arrived at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, she already knew she had a knack for engineering. And while the College of Engineering courses were definitely challenging, the support and community she sought in college went beyond academics. In the Jackie Gaughan Multicultural Center, she found a home away from home.
“Every UNL employee in that building supported me in one way or another,” Angelica says. “From just having a place to relax and study to putting me in touch with the right contacts around campus for planning events, they gave me a lot of resources.”
Those events she planned were often for UNITE (University of Nebraska Inter-Tribal Exchange). Angelica saw the student organization as an opportunity to build a different sort of bridge: one connecting her family, her culture and her campus. That UNITE was led by her cousin was yet another bridge for her.
During her time at UNITE, Angelica and her peers worked to bring Powwow celebrations back to campus. While digging through UNITE paperwork from past years, Angelica and her cousin found a familiar face.
“As we were going back through old files, I found photos of my mom when she was a student doing the same things we were doing, which was really inspiring.”
The UNITE Powwow still continues today, serving as a connection for other Native students to find community and celebration. It was during the height of this busy time that Angelica walked into a career fair in the Nebraska Union with a goal to impress the company that would eventually become her future employer.
I use what I learned from some of my classes at Nebraska every single day. Even just being involved in so many groups has helped me manage my time, be more of a leader, work with clients or express my ideas to other engineers. I think Nebraska just encourages you to embrace leadership aspects in yourself.
“I already knew Olsson and knew they would be at the fair, so I did that thing where you research everyone in the company, figure out what projects they worked on and write down questions. I guess it worked, because a week later they called me about an internship. I’ve been working there ever since.”
And though bridges weren’t on her mind when she first got the job, she quickly realized that bridges contained many of the same engineering fundamentals she’d been rigorously studying at Nebraska.
“I use what I learned from some of my classes at Nebraska every single day,” Angelica explains. “Even just being involved in so many groups has helped me manage my time, be more of a leader, work with clients or express my ideas to other engineers. I think Nebraska just encourages you to embrace leadership aspects in yourself.”
In her off time, Angelica tries to pass down some of those leadership skills to younger generations, volunteering her time in local classrooms, bringing groups from local youth organizations like Girls Inc. into her workplace to shadow her on the job and, even, coaching youth girls’ basketball in the evenings.
It’s a practice she’s bridged from her time as a Husker.
“At Nebraska, we were encouraged to volunteer in so many different ways. I volunteered in the YMCA’s Smart Girls program for getting more girls into STEM fields, which is where I realized I loved working with kids. So, I’m really happy I’ve been able to keep that going.”
