Business : Kirkwood Construction Management students build skills and houses

For Tim Hayes and Josh Thompson, a year of classroom instruction shifted this summer to community service construction. The two Kirkwood Community College students were among a group who put their skills learned on the Cedar Rapids campus to work for the benefit of Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity. The students got valuable on-the-job experience as they worked with Habitat crews on new homes for qualifying area residents. The 2010 summer internship began when Habitat for Humanity leaders met with Kirkwood faculty in April. “That was a key day for Cedar Valley Habitat, when we met with Kirkwood,” said Ron Olinger, construction manager. “The partnership has worked out wonderfully for us. They have served with us every day and attend construction meetings, too. Tim and Josh have both shown great skills and leadership on our projects. We couldn’t be happier with their work this summer. We hope this is the start of a long partnership with Kirkwood,” Olinger said. Tim Hayes had his summer work experience rapidly move from hands-on construction to supervision. He graduated to an oversight role in Habitat’s Brush with Kindness re-painting program in the Wellington Heights neighborhood in Cedar Rapids. “We prepped a lot of houses in that area, getting them ready to paint,” Hayes recalled. “I led a team that got the houses ready, scraping and prepping the outside. Then we had Americorps volunteers come in and do the painting. There must have been 500 people helping out in a few weeks.” The work for Hayes has expanded to more supervision at other Habitat houses as the summer progressed. He got Saturday supervisory roles and has learned how to “match the skills with the work” as volunteer crews come from near and far to help Cedar Rapids recover from the effects of the 2008 flooding in Linn County. “We’ve had hundreds of volunteers show up, some with a lot of work background and some pretty new to construction. It’s been an interesting process, and I’ve learned a lot of people management techniques along the way,” Hayes added. The Kirkwood students also got a bit of ad hoc media management training, as two notable volunteers on a late June weekend were football legend and Cedar Rapids native Kurt Warner, his wife Brenda and several Warner family members. Hayes and Thompson are part of a growing segment of Kirkwood’s student body, the “non-traditional” age group often defined as above the age of 25. Kirkwood officials noted that in 2009, students aged 26 and up increased by more than 32 percent from the previous year. Josh Thompson hails from Lisbon and will start his second year in Kirkwood’s Construction Management program after his summer work. The 52-year-old Hayes is a Linn County native who has worked manufacturing and construction jobs since high school. He took a recent layoff from a Cryovac printing department job as an opportunity. “The one good thing about that situation is there were funds available for training, if we wanted to do it. I saw that support as a good chance, and looked into Kirkwood programs,” he said. Hayes gravitated toward the Construction Management program, noting a long-time interest in homebuilding and a strong family tradition. “My dad was a real do-it-yourself kind of guy, and I grew up doing a lot of that with him, lots of family projects. So when I talked with [Kirkwood instructor] Jim Off, it sounded like a good fit,” Hayes added. Off considers the new Habitat for Humanity partnership a “win/win, for sure” for agency and college alike. “I’m really proud of these guys and the other students we have sent to internships this year. Tim and Josh, especially are great students in our classes and labs. Then they get to the work sites and demonstrate that great Iowa work ethic that you see so often. It’s been fun to see develop and we hope to continue for a long time,” Off observed. For Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity, the past year has been “pivotal” for the agency, according to Executive Director Jeff Capps. “We have been around since 1988, but this last year was the biggest in terms of our productivity. In 2009 we completed 22 homes. Our previous high was maybe five or six a year. In 2010 we are building 13 new homes, plus rehabbing or repairing another 10 or so. Our goal is to serve 60 families over a three-year period, 2009-11. That will equal all the families served in the 20 years previous to that. We are really delighted with the community’s interest,” Capps added. Following their summer stints with Habitat for Humanity, Hayes and Thompson will both be back in their Kirkwood labs and classrooms, finishing their second-year classes in Construction Management. Tim Hayes sees plenty of value in the course work, with “plenty of new” to put into practice. “I got lots of experience growing up and in my past jobs. But construction is like a lot of businesses today. Things are always changing and modernizing. I want to be ready and know what’s coming next,” he said.