Builders, Students Gain from Mentoring

Monday, April 02, 2012

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The Builders Association of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania and Youngstown State University wrapped up the third annual estimating competition over the weekend and industry leaders are pleased with the benefits the competition affords the students.

“Our students are very enthusiastic about it,” said Carol Lamb, associate professor at Youngstown State. “They realize that it gets them networking and they get that contact with industry mentors that they need.”

Lamb approached the Builders Association about the competition three and a half years ago, hoping to give her civil and construction engineering technology students “some experience and exposure to real world situations.”

Joe DeSalvo, executive vice president of DeSalvo Construction Co., Hubbard, and president of The Builders, has taken part in all three estimating competitions, this year presenting as the contest project a new showroom addition to the Fred Martin Mercedes-Benz car dealership that his company built.

“Surprisingly, they are pretty well equipped when they come to this competition,” DeSalvo said. “I was surprised pleasantly that a lot of the students did have a pretty good grip on estimating and how to do estimate preparation.” The students’ estimations are very competitive every year, he added.

The competition itself lasts just one day. On Friday, three groups of seven students were assigned the showroom project, and given only a few hours to review the plans and prepare an estimate for the project with no outside access.

In the weeks leading up to the competition, the teams worked with an industry mentor and subcontractors to learn about real-world estimating. “They’re able to bring a wealth of day-to-day knowledge directly to the students,” said Kevin Reilly, executive vice president of the Builders Association.

Reilly said the competition ais beneficial to The Builders because participating students are then more prepared when they graduate.

“It helps us because some of these students are coming into the construction field. Some of the students are working as interns or, after graduation, getting jobs with some of the association members,” Reilly said.

The team that presented the winning bid estimates consisted of D.J. David, senior, Stu Duchek, sophomore, Jeremy Fox, sophomore, Andre Silvers, sophomore, Robbie Smith, sophomore, Nick Shaulis, sophomore, and Christian Conzett, sophomore. The students mentored by DeSalvo Construction’s Jim Bayer.