Former Scholarship Winner Now Sits on Foundation Board

Aaron Ausen’s profile as a third-generation precaster who is fully committed to his family’s business makes him an ideal member of the NPCA Educational Foundation Board of Directors. But what makes Ausen unique is his status as the first NPCAEF scholarship recipient to sit on the board since it was formed in 1989.

Ausen graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 2006 with a civil engineering degree, aided in part by three years of scholarships from the Foundation and three other scholarships. “There’s really no way I could have gone to school without them,” he said.

After graduation, he immediately returned to Dalmaray Concrete Products in Janesville, Wis., to join the company full-time. He had been working at the plant Saturdays and summers since he was about 12, but armed with his civil engineering degree, he brought additional knowledge back to the plant.

“Getting the degree has brought a little different aspect to the company,” Ausen said. “You get a greater respect for the calculations and the codes behind the concrete work that you do. Taking the knowledge from school and applying it here in being able to calculate capacities of beams and pads and things like that really helps out.”

One of the major changes Ausen helped to institute was in the reinforcing of Dalmaray’s products, particularly septic tanks. “We have completely changed our way of reinforcing all our products,” he said. “The first day I got out of college I came back here and threw everything away, started over and recalculated everything.” The result was an immediate improvement in quality and higher customer satisfaction. Read More »