Colorado Springs Chapter 356
Construction Career Days

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El Paso County Contactors Association and National Association of Women in Construction have come together to introduce the Construction Industry to our next generation. This gives students a great insight to the job opportunities offered in the Construction industry.

For more information contact Connie Stevenson connie@stroup-ins.com or go to our website at www.coloradoconstructioncareerdayssoutherncolorado.com 

Click here for a copy of the Partnering Agreement between NAWIC and the
Federal Highway Administration.

On September 23^rd, nearly 500 students, teachers, administrators and counselors attended the Southern Colorado Construction Career Day (CCCD) event at the Tab Construction yard in Colorado Springs.  The CCCD is sponsored by the El Paso County Contractors Association and the National Association of Women in Construction.  Since few high schools currently offer shop or vocational education classes, many high school students are not aware of the variety of careers available to them in the construction industry.  The CCCD gave students the opportunity to sample careers that may be of interest and which could lead to a profitable vocation.

To give students the true feel of a construction job site, they wore hard hats, safety vests and safety glasses. Students participated in hand-on activities designed to give them experiences in many facets of the construction industry.  Volunteers from local construction and engineering companies; unions; trade associations; construction material and equipment suppliers; City, CSU,County, State, and Federal transportation agencies provided firsthand knowledge to the students. There were indoor and outdoor activities including:  estimating costs of projects and reading blueprints, engineering, homebuilding, including flooring, roofing, drywall, plumbing and electrical work, concrete and masonry work, lasers and surveying, operating heavy equipment, utilities, landscaping , and  an OSHA activity emphasizing  the importance of safety on the job site.  Students constructed a wooden or sheet metal CD carrier which they took home.  The parts for the wooden boxes were made by Rampart High School students.   Teachers Dennis Phillips spent many hours engraving the lids with the CCCD logo and Mike Burns routed grooves on the box sides.  Mike also came to our rescue and video-taped the event and compiled a DVD for next year’s recruiting.

Students were served over 200 pizzas for lunch. Nearly 200 volunteers parked cars, registered students, were group leaders, and of course cleaned up at the end of the day.  At the wrap-up session, students heard from a local contractor, Rob Spitzer of Spitzer Masonry about his own construction career.  D.A. Dan May shared Saf2Tel information and the Job Corp and colleges gave contact and class information, as well as financial aid info for degrees in Construction Management and related classes.

The success of the day is best summarized in a statement form Rampart H.S. teacher, Casey Bartels, “I want to say a big "THANK YOU!" for yesterday.  The Colorado Construction Career Day was a huge success despite the nasty weather and you all treated our students to information and activities that we just can't accomplish in the school setting.  My favorite comment from a Rampart student was, "I wish every day at school could be like this.  I learned a lot and I really had fun!"  Ouch to us teachers but a big KUDOS to all you contractors and construction workers who did such a great job with our students!!!  I think it gets better each year!”

What do you get when you combine 450 High School students from over 20 schools, hundreds of volunteers, thousand of dollars worth of equipment, materials, tools, workers and of course 260 pizzas? Another successful Construction Career Day! On Thursday, September 25th the construction industry in Colorado Springs hosted the first Construction Career Days of this year at Tab Construction in north Colorado Springs. Teachers, administrators, counselors and students from school districts throughout the southern area of the state attended the event where apprentices and journeyman assisted the students in building sheet metal and wooden tool boxes, participating in installing pipe, bending conduit, wiring up circuits, and learning about soil compaction testing and landscape design. The students were given the chance to use state of the art surveying equipment, such as global positioning systems ( GPS) and handheld computers, to measure distances, elevations and other operations used in civil engineering. They also had a chance to lay brick and the volunteers assisted students in operating over fifteen various pieces of heavy equipment.

The Colorado Springs Career Day Planning Committee did an exceptional job coordinating the event and a BIG Thank You to all those CCA members who assisted in making the Colorado Springs Construction Career Day a huge hit!

Colorado Springs Construction Career Days- A Personal Perspective

By Terry Kish, CCA’s Director of Safety and Workforce Development

The September 25 th Construction Career Days event in Colorado Springs was the seventh Career Day event I have participated in and as always I was proud of our industry and the difference the volunteer’s and companies made in promoting construction careers to the young people in our state. But at this event several volunteers and I found us on the other side of the giving experience.

My job was to walk around making sure the activities were being run safely and to take event pictures. At one end of the heavy equipment area there was a group of students who were at a backhoe activity which was being coordinated by James “Jimbo” Thompkins, Regional Sales Manager for Power Motive Corporation. As I walked towards this group I noticed something was different about these students. They were from the Colorado School of The Deaf and Blind. None of the visually impaired students were at the event but there were two groups of hearing impaired students from the school. Jimbo explained to the students what the backhoe is used for, what heavy equipment operators do and how much money they can make. The student’s teacher was signing to them what Jimbo was saying and when it came there time to operate the backhoe none of them wanted to be the first one to operate the equipment just like most of the student groups at the event. One student with a lot apprehension on his face climbed up into the cab and with Jimbo’s hands on the controls showing him the movement of the boom and the bucket. In a short time the students were picking up buckets of dirt from one pile and moving them to another. When the students exited the cab they had the largest smile of any of the students at career days. All the students had their turn on the backhoe and some of them did extremely well considering it was their first time on a piece of equipment. At the end of the demonstration the students ask their teacher to take a picture of them by the backhoe so they could document their accomplishments. After the teacher lined up the students they signed to her they wanted Jimbo in their group picture. Several pictures were taken of the students and they signed to Jimbo and myself their appreciation for the opportunity to operate the equipment and then went off to the next station to learn about the other careers in our industry. The Teacher express to me several the students were interested in a job in construction but did not know what opportunities were available to them and what jobs they could be successful in. I found it interesting that I heard the same thing from most of `the other students at Career Days. As I walked around the event I witnessed this fulfilling experience repeating itself to these students and especially to the volunteers at the stations. As the students left each activity I had a difficult time telling whose smiles were bigger, the deaf students or the volunteers! But I do know the student’s excitement and their appreciation to our industry touched many hearts yesterday. Especially mine!

Colorado Construction Career Days 2007:

The 5th Annual Colorado Construction Career Days was held at the Adams County Fairgrounds in Brighton, CO on October 3rd and 4th, 2007.

Approximately 1,500 students participated in the two day event and many good comments were received from students, teachers and volunteers. It just seems to get better every year.

The students were divided into color groups designated by hard hat colors and matched up with a Group Leader. They visited indoor hands-on activities (making a wooden tool box or a metal tool box, electrical, blue print reading, masonry, landscaping, CAD drafting and many others) for half of the day. They were all treated to a delicious box lunch and then they spent the other half of the day in the equipment area operating heavy equipment including a drill rig, trucks, graders, lifts, backhoes, forklifts and a remote compactor. The day ended with all students meeting in the Dome Room where tickets were drawn for prizes. Each student was given a “goodie bag” before they boarded their busses for the trip home.

On Thursday a VIP Reception and Tour was attended by several local government officials as well as board members and/or representatives of prominent companies who received an overview of the program, heard from some of the industry’s leading executives and then took a tour of the event. They were all very impressed.

The members of the Colorado Springs Chapter 356 who volunteered this year are Linda Champlin-Frank, Connie Stevenson, Wendy Hibbert and Adrienne Carpenter.

Be watching for information on CCD 2008. Connie Stevenson has started planning for an event to be held in southern Colorado in conjunction with the event held in the Denver area.

That day we did hear many positive comments.  Many noted this was the best career day they had ever attended.  They said they usually sat around and listened to boring speakers.  They loved getting to do things!

 Thank you to so many of our NAWIC Chapter 356 members that were in attendance that day.  I especially want to thank Dodi Walch and Katie Trapp for getting their companies, McNelly Construction and Olson Plumbing, respectively, on board for activities.  This CCD was truly the culmination of many minds and hands working together for the future of the construction industry!  We did a good thing!!