Love what you do and you'll never work a day in your life:
We are Responsible for Sparking the Passion for the Future of Construction. For so many of us, the course of our journey is never a straight line. We tend to veer in various different directions as the bottoms of our feet kiss the face of this earth. Life has a funny way of keeping us on our toes. Sometimes we get kicked in the teeth. Sometimes, it can't get much better. The one constant that we can depend on is that change is always just around the corner. If we cannot adapt, we will not thrive. Our cultures, our beliefs & our understanding are constantly evolving. The construction industry, is one of the most fast-paced, challenging & rewarding industries I have ever had the pleasure of being a part of. I absolutely love every aspect of construction. Like many of us, I was introduced to construction through LEGO as a young "padawan" . My father was a railroader and jack of all trades, really. He raised me on his own as a single parent. Sometimes he would take me with him to work, because he was left with no other choice. Imagine being 9 years old, and sitting at the helm of a multi-million dollar piece of heavy machinery that is responsible for surface and lining railroad track. Now, imagine being 9 years old and being left alone inside the cab, unsupervised, on live track, and using the joysticks to operate the work heads that dig down into the rock to squeeze the rail and lift or lower it depending on the elevation and degree of the curve. Moving forward one tie at a time and on to the next, making the tamper blades squeeze the rail a few times and then again to the next one over and over again for miles. It was like a video game. A real-life, very dangerous, yet fairly simple video game. There is a laser cannon that shoots to a telescoping target in front of the machine. That is how the machine makes the track straight. Little did I know, like my father before me, I would grow up and work with lasers as well. In high school, I was not sure what I wanted to do with myself to contribute to society. I really enjoyed working with children as I was a student aide for the physical education teacher. I learned very early that if you need to put a smile on your face, go hang out with a 6 year old for a couple of hours. Children are good for the soul. I also really enjoyed wood shop class and construction class. Part of it was the working with my hands aspect, but now I realize the majority of my enjoyment from those classes was due to the teacher. Mr. Mark was a very large, loud and extremely intimidating man. He was a no-nonsense type of guy. My sophomore year, he caught me cheating on a homework assignment for Shop I. Immediately after grading the assignments, he knew what was going on. He brought me into his office as my heart was pounding trying to jump out of my chest. I had no idea what was about to happen. He looked me dead in the eyes and asked me where my integrity was. I was blatantly embarrassed and very fearful for what I could only imagine what was about to ensue. When I asked him what integrity meant, he took a breath and a step back. He explained to me what he meant, and for that breath, step and explanation I will be forever grateful. Two days of in school suspension spent in Mr. Marks office and watching the other students look at me from the other side of the glass was horrible at the time, but I am so thankful for it now. Holding yourself accountable is an absolute necessity in order to be successful in this industry. Doing the right thing all the time and not just when somebody is watching is what it's all about. Two years ago, Mr. Mark retired after over 30 years of of teaching. When I heard the news, I had to do something in honor of his exceptional service and unprecedented positive influence to young men and women who went to Hershey High School. I was able to convince Snell Services to match my donation of $500. After reaching out to the Education Foundation the Bob Mark Memorial Scholarship was founded. It is a $1,000 scholarship awarded to a graduating senior who plans on pursuing a career in the construction field. Of course I called up Mr. Mark on the phone before making anything final. We talked for quite a while and aside from him telling me how much he appreciated my gesture, the frog in his throat made it obvious that it meant a lot to him for someone to do this. I asked him if he remembered catching me cheating in shop class. Who cheats in shop class, anyways!?!? To my surprise, he did not remember. He told me he tried to forget the bad things. I reminded him that because of his influence, and him not only explaining but modeling what integrity was, I turned out to be a better person because of it. I am and will remain forever grateful for getting the privilege to learn from him not only about industrial technology, but life as well. He was so good about making sure everyone understood what he was teaching before moving on. After further reflection, a little over a decade in the "real world" and 6 years with a company that had no idea what BIM was when they hired me, it's a little more obvious that throwing money towards a cause is the least you can do. To really make an influence, we must get involved personally. If someone would have came to my high school and gave a presentation on laser scanners, 3D printers, robotic total stations or even just showed me the power of a Revit render or walk-through I would have been way more excited and enthusiastic about going into the construction industry. Now, we can bring the model into the actual job-site with the help of things like the hololense and augmented, mixed and virtual reality. How cool! It's been apparent for some time now that this industry lacks younger skilled workers. Most kids in high school don't want to go into construction because of old typical stereotypes of it being back-breaking work among various other reasons. When I asked Mr. Mark if he knew what BIM was, he had no clue. It is our responsibility to educate and influence the future generations to get excited about what we do. Technology is taking over the processes of a lot of industries and it's driving progress, efficiency and safety. Construction will never go away. Materials, methods and the tools are constantly changing and improving. We can't just sit back and hope we get some new recruits after they graduate. Wait for them to hire on at a company and then invite that company to seminars and conferences for thousands and thousands of dollars. If we really want to make a difference, we have to show them just how awesome this industry is earlier, before they are thrown into the real world. Technology we can show them today will very likely be obsolete by the time they are finishing college. I just posted on LinkedIn yesterday; "lack of information KILLS a project schedule". We cannot expect high school and college students to get excited about things they do not know exist. We must hold ourselves accountable for influencing the future of our industry. Please join me in reaching out to educational institutions and offer some sort of passion-sparking and engaging demonstration of how we as builders are transforming an industry and the very world we live in with our shared passion for the construction industry. I hope this article reaches enough people in the right places to spark a movement of networking and brainstorming. Together, and only together, we can overcome anything! Please feel free to reach out to me with questions or ideas and lets work together to abolish the negative stigma of construction and influence the new up-and-comers to be excited about what we do today in order to build tomorrow.
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