On December 11th, I was pleased to attend the CREATE awards luncheon along with Donald Blackburn and hand out our scholarship to this year’s winner, Ariya Vaishnavi, from Folsom High School. Ariya has a 4.2 GPA and is planning to pursue an engineering degree in either the CSU or UC system. Your Chapter has been supporting CREATE for the past three years and I have also been serving as a mentor. The CREATE (Construction, Re-Development, Engineering, Architecture, Trades, Education) program is run by the Construction Industry Education Foundation in partnership with the Sacramento Regional Builders Exchange.
The goal of CREATE is to “educate and inspire students to pursue pathways which create the built environment.” This program includes over 75 high schools all over California and over 10,000 students have participated since its inception. The program pairs mentors from the design and construction industry with high school junior and senior students to complete a semester students to complete a semester long project that includes planning and design. Each class had a semester-long project that included site design, drainage and water quality, parking layout, utilities, landscaping, ADA requirements, sketches, calculations, RFIs, and cost estimating.
We met with the students weekly and provided guidance on the planning and design process. At the end of semester each group competes against other schools in the region. In previous years I was assigned to Whitney High School and Granite Bay High School and this semester I mentored students at Rio Americano High School. I can definitely say that I found this experience rewarding. Helping young people learn more about our profession is just one way we can give back to all of the mentors that have influenced each of our careers.
