LYNN — Professionals from Lynn Public Schools recently participated in the Massachusetts Associated General Contractors Building Advancement Externship.
Johanna Smith and Josselyn Guzzman, school counselors at Lynn Tech, and Dominic Copeland, a former English Language Arts Teacher at Lynn English were three of 15 teachers and administrators across the state selected to engage in experiential learning that provides educators with a deeper understanding of the construction industry, particularly construction management, and how to enter the construction industry through apprenticeship and higher education.
A lot of people are familiar with typical construction careers in the trades, said Samilys Rodriguez, director of career development and industry inclusion at AGC. “But what we do in the program is show that there’s another side to construction, which includes professional management.”
Rodgriguez said during the program, teachers spent time out in the field, visiting construction sites to help gain a better understanding of the management support required for a construction project.
Guzzman said she works with ninth graders at Lynn Tech, and she wanted to take part in the externship because she wanted to ensure she was aware of the opportunities students can pursue as careers.
She said while visiting Worcester High School and Massachusetts General Hospital, they explored how each building went from pre-construction to the final product.
“It was really, really cool to see how all of these projects start and like from there, how they actually end up becoming real,” Guzzman said.
She added hearing from individuals in the construction industry helped her understand better on how people choose construction careers and from then, what their journeys look like.
“One of the things that they told us over and over again was how important the soft skills were for individuals going into these fields,” Guzzman said.
She added this was one of the key takeaways from the externship and was looking forward to creating lesson plans and activities that will help students identify their strengths and weaknesses.
Guzzman added one of AGC’s initiatives is to diversify the field of construction and it resonated with her working as a counselor for the district.
“Lynn is such a diverse community, and I work with so many great students in the City of Lynn,” she said. “Being there …I can only picture … those students that would be ideal for that type of setting.”
Copeland, who will be teaching at Boston Public Schools in the fall, said it was eye-opening to see the expansive opportunities the construction industry provides outside of being a carpenter.
He said he met a lot of project managers who were younger than 30 years old, which encouraged him to change his perspective on construction.
“Part of our goal is to make sure our kids can have a great life,” he said, referring to how project managers have the opportunity to earn high salaries.
Rodriguez said she was encouraged to see educators from both technical and non-vocational schools.
“We want to encourage construction careers as a pathway for students that want to go into college and students that don’t want to go into college,” she said.
