2011 BENJAMIN RAUSCHENBACH 

YOUNG PROFESSIONAL

(Archives 2011)

THE CLASS OF 2011

Benjamin Rauschenbach, a project manager with BALAR Associates, was named the 2011 Young Professional of the Year at the fifth annual Northwest Louisiana Young Professionals Gala, presented by the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce and Bossier Chamber of Commerce and The Forum News. The event was held Dec. 2 at the Horseshoe Casino Riverdome.

Rauschenbach, a civil engineer who typifies the sort of hardworking, civic-minded person that makes the Shreveport-Bossier community an outstanding place to live  and work, has been a project manager for BALAR Associates in Shreveport since 2003. He manages nearly 60 ongoing private and public infrastructure improvement projects with an approximate value of over $50 million in addition to volunteering, mentoring and cultivating the next generation of engineers.

“I was attracted to BALAR more for the people I would be working with than for the actual work,” Rauschenbach said. “[But] the thing that attracts me to this type of work [is] we’re exposed to projects from the very beginning all the way through to the end. I think it makes for a very well-rounded engineer.”

For his part, Rauschenbach said his best mentors were his parents. “Both my parents are very hard workers,” he said. “[They] were very encouraging, and I think that helped. Engineering school is difficult.”

As (2011) Young Professional of the Year, he’ll no doubt find himself in prime position to be a positive example to other young engineers.

– Kelly Phelan Powell, 2011