Hands-On: CGRESD Intern Learns on the Job
Meet Matthew, project engineer intern and student at Clare High School enrolled in the Career Technical Education (CTE) Construction Trades Program. Matthew has been working alongside the Rockford team as we construct the new Career Education Center on the Magnus Center Campus.
At Rockford, we support the learning experience of any student as opportunities present themselves and can be performed in a responsible, safe manner. We regularly hire student interns in construction, preconstruction, estimating, design and other non-construction related fields. Our team understands the importance of today’s youth learning more about viable career options through hands-on learning. As such, our team at Clare-Gladwin RESD (CGRESD) reached out to the CTE program to invite students from their building trades program to take advantage of a project engineer intern position. Matthew was recommended as a great candidate.
A senior at Clare High School, Matthew is considering attending Ferris State University next fall for either surveying or civil engineering.
“Construction is a way to be proud of myself; it really makes me feel accomplished,” Matthew said when asked why he was considering a career in construction. “Being on a jobsite, seeing the progress being made and knowing I was a part of it is why I like it so much.”
As an intern, Matthew is responsible for quality control and assurance documentation, as well as assisting the safety team with jobsite safety for the Magnus Center project. He is creating utility record drawings for new and existing utilities on the campus, as well as taking photographs of specific elements from construction drawings to check they are presented as specified. Once construction of the Diesel Tech Center (Building D) starts, he will also be involved in the sitework activities and civil work.
“Helping to build the campus that future students like me – including my brother – will use is a real honor. My brother will be going through the CTE program for the next two years and building somewhere for his education to excel means a lot to me.”
While grateful for what he has learned in the classroom, Matthew said his hands-on experience adapting to real-life situations on the fly in the field has been “hard to beat.”
“It’s an amazing experience and the Rockford superintendents Todd and Jay are amazing mentors. I couldn’t ask for a better internship and way to gain knowledge during my senior year,” Matthew said. Similarly, he believes the internship is also helping him determine what career he might want to pursue. Seeing all the different companies show up to the jobsite daily and perform their specific roles has been insightful as Matthew narrows down his career path.
In addition to working with Matthew, our team has found other opportunities to engage Clare-Gladwin students in construction, such as giving hard hat tours of the facility. We know that experiential learning is powerful, and getting students involved in construction in a real-world environment can be beneficial to their future career interests.
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