What initially brought you to WCC?
Mary Branch brought me to WCC. She was on the board of Trustees and the President at the time had asked her to help with the new Residential Construction Department opening on Huron street in 2004. Mrs. Branch was part owner of Willow Building Company and had many years’ experience in residential construction; it is my understanding that the executive team and the board wanted her input on how to budget and schedule the new homes being built inside the center. At the time, I had been working with Willow Building as a project manager for two years. One day in March, Mrs. Branch approached me with a side project she wanted me to work on. She gave me the plans to the new modular homes being built by WCC students, and asked me to produce a budget and a schedule. A week later, Mrs. Branch and I were meeting with two people at WCC to discuss me becoming a part time construction assistant to help with permitting, ordering and scheduling at the Landau Center. About two months later I was offered a full time classified position and have enjoyed every moment since.
What are your favorite classes to teach and why?
This question is really hard for me because I love every class for a different reason. The classes that have a hands on lab included, I like because of the ability to have the students learn both the theory and the quality it takes to complete a project. The classes I teach in construction management are also a blast because things change so much in our industry that we are constantly changing our lesson plans which makes it not only exciting for the students but also for us. This year, we started a pilot program with Ypsilanti Community High School; we get to work with Bonnie (from the Academic Skills Department) and Tish (from the English Department) who are both so amazing. We have the students five days a week, and it is a 180 from normal college classes. On a day-to-day basis we can see them gaining knowledge, and their outlook is “anything is possible." It’s hard not to enjoy the time we spend with them.
Can you share some of your insights regarding student success?
We have those students that will succeed no matter what. When I first started, these were the students that made me work harder to give them more. But then I realized I was only hitting 25% of the students in my class. Now I focus on those that almost have it or don’t have it at all. What I have found is the students that could succeed anywhere are now enjoying class because I give them so many other ways to learn the topics, so many other views of the topics, and not just the industry standard. The students that are on the fence, seem to grasp things much faster than before and enjoy the class just as much as the students that had it on week one. What I think has helped me is expressing how much the students need to depend on themselves and their teams when on the job. Most of my homework takes the students away from the book and onto industry websites, state and federal requirements. We often find the book may be contradictory to what local requirements are. This is where students can see there is more out there than this class room. This is what I hope most students take with them: the knowledge to find things on their own and be able to pull this information up later when they need it in their field. One of my mantras is to never stop learning. I can’t say it to them it's a "lifelong learning thing," but I say "find the answer in more than one place." Most of them take this as a challenge, a game against their buddy in class: who went to the most places to find the info, who has the best you tube video with the info., or who has the info the instructor likes?
What is your vision for the future of the construction management and technology programs?
We would love to grow. The industry is growing now and we get calls every week from businesses needing employees. The latest 50 hot jobs report had construction management in the top 20. We know that students are also looking for quick classes, so we would like to work on mixed mode to get them learning the theory at home, so they would only have to come to campus a few hours, for a few weeks to complete their hands on projects. The opportunities for our department are endless, just like the industry itself.