When Damon S. Williams arrived at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the 1970s, he didn’t have a clear path — just a physics degree, a civil engineering job, and a question: What do I do with the rest of my life?
He got his answer in an unexpected place: a conversation that began like a job interview with Professor Richard S. Engelbrecht. That bold introduction earned Williams not only mentorship and scholarship support, but a lifelong model for how to lead with intention. Through support, opportunity, and community, the university didn’t just prepare Williams for a successful career — it inspired him to lead with purpose. He carried the lessons he learned at Illinois into the water infrastructure space, designing sustainable systems that now serve millions across the drought-prone western U.S. But more than the projects or awards, it was the mentorship model at Illinois that stuck with him.
“I want to dance out of this life feeling that I’ve done something that impacts people in a positive way,” he said. That philosophy is now paying forward. In 1998, Williams established the Damon S. Williams Scholarship to support underrepresented graduate students in environmental engineering, particularly those focused on water and wastewater — the very field that helped define his career.
Rooted in his own experience, the scholarship offers more than funding: it’s a call to believe in potential, just as Engelbrecht once believed in him. So far, more than a dozen students have received support through the fund — future engineers who might not otherwise have had access to one of the nation’s top-ranked civil engineering programs. The need is pressing: while Black Americans make up 13% of the workforce, only 9% make up the STEM workforce.
Scholarships like Williams’ are helping to close that gap by opening doors and expanding who gets to lead in building a better world. Williams’ story reflects something larger: the University of Illinois System’s ability to transform lives — and inspire alumni to transform others.
What began with one conversation between professor and student has rippled outward, shaping communities, careers, and the next generation of change-makers in engineering.
