Awards

When Ramey Kemp founded this company in 1992 he had a vision. He believed that the potential of RKA was limitless – and that his future staff would do incredible things for years to come

When he retired in 2017, he had achieved incredible things—offices spanning 3 states, 80+ employees, and thousands of innovative projects. But, RKA wanted his legacy to live on beyond the name of the company, so a scholarship was established.

Ramey was a Raleigh native and an NCSU alumnus, so it was only fitting to honor that heritage in the hometown of the RKA headquarters — Raleigh, NC.

The RKA team pledged $25,000 in December of 2014 for an endowment fund that would help the next generation of engineers with their collegiate studies. In 2017 the endowment fund was named the Ramey Kemp scholarship to honor Ramey’s official retirement. It will eventually be called “The Ramey F. Kemp, Jr. PE, PTOE scholarship.” To qualify for the scholarship, the applicant must be a junior, senior, or graduate student in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering with demonstrated financial need.

The most recent recipient, Leah Gottlieb, is a junior in civil engineering at NCSU. Leah is from Willow Spring, NC and she plans to graduate in 2023. Leah is in the Gamma Beta Phi Honor Society as well as the Women’s Transportation Seminar. She previously worked for the Howling Cow Creamery. Since she had an interest in transportation engineering, she joined RKA’s summer internship program. Here’s what Leah had to say about it,

“I had talked with RKA at the engineering career fair when I was a freshman looking for future internship opportunities, and then COVID-19 hit and it was challenging to find opportunities. When I received the scholarship in my junior year, I was honored to be a recipient and it sparked my interest in RKA again. Knowing that RKA supported me in my education was a blessing and I will always be grateful. I am so thankful that I joined this company as an intern this summer! The traffic team has been so encouraging and has taught me so much the past couple of months!” 

After graduation, Leah plans to work for a civil engineering firm. She plans to continue pursuing a concentration in traffic or transportation engineering while at NC State.

As previous scholarship recipients have noted, the financial support of the Ramey Kemp Scholarship lowers a student’s financial stress, so they can decrease working hours and enables them to better focus on their coursework and goal of becoming an engineer.