Members of ETSU’s Roan Scholars toured the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Boone Dam earlier this month to learn more about the dam’s functions, interior and challenges.
The Roan Scholars Leadership Program empowers students to be leaders of excellence who will positively impact the ETSU campus, the region and our world.
“Our program really focuses on the out-of-classroom experience. We are always looking for opportunities to introduce Roan Scholars to people, places, ideas and organizations in our region that are doing important tasks that otherwise we wouldn’t be exposed to,” said Scott Jeffress, Director of the Roan Scholars Leadership Program.
Senior Program Manager, Civil Engineering, Veronica Barredo, taught students about TVA’s history and the construction of Boone Dam and provided a lesson on dam safety. Students were also informed about Boone Dam’s sinkhole repairs and TVA’s priorities that focus on safety for the downstream public, safety of its workers and high quality in Boone Dam’s thorough repair.
Roan Scholars then observed the repair of Boone Dam in person at the tour’s construction overlook and saw the repair measures they were taught earlier; this included lowering the water level in Boone Lake, filling in the sinkhole, installing filters to block eroding seepage points and placing a concrete wall underground to cutoff water seepage.
Students then visited Boone Dam’s control room and learned about the dam’s primary functions that included flood control of the South Fork Holston River and generating hydroelectric power from the river’s current supplying roughly 46,000 houses with power.
For more information about the Roan Scholars Program, visit roanscholars.org/ or contact 423.439.7677 or email roanscholars@etsu.edu.
