Carpentry Graduate

Attended Summit:
Winter 2012-2013

How did you hear about Summit?
I saw TB commercials and heard radio ads talking about Summit, but I have to give my family credit for actually showing me information on the curriculum and courses offered.

What program did you study and why?
I chose the Carpentry program. I’ve always had an interest in construction and woodworking. I wanted to become a skilled craftsman, whether it was residential, commercial, or cabinetry. i just knew I wanted to be in the industry by any means necessary.  While it was wasn’t my intention to immediately join the Union, I wanted to learn more of the techniques and methods of carpentry within the construction trade.

What do you feel is the most important skill you leaned while at Summit?
Summit helped me realize that there are so many opportunities out in the world to go after! As a skill set, it helped me be ambitious and optimistic looking toward the future.

What did you do after graduating? 
After Summit, I enrolled at Minnesota State University – Mankato, where I earned my Bachelor’s Degree in Construction Management and a Minor in Business Administration. Upon finishing my college career I began my internship with TRI-Construction, where I became a full-time employee. My role is Project Manager/Estimator and I’ve been here for over two years now.

Advice for Summit student in the construction program? 
Be ready, hungry, and positive about expanding your knowledge about construction, it’s very intriguing!

 

Transcript – Construction Program Alumnus, Rodjerick, Shares His Career Journey

RODJERICK COURTNEY: Hi, I’m Rodjerick Courtney. I’m a project manager with TRI-Construction. We specialize in metal framing and drywall assemblies, and also expanding our general contracting division.

So, I attended Summit Academy through the years of 2012 to 2013 doing the pre-apprentice carpentry program.

So after high school, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I had a peaked interest in high school with carpentry and construction so I knew that it was going in that direction.

I just didn’t quite know what industry. Whether it be general labor, heavy equipment and road construction or remodels of residential homes. So, I had, those were like my main interests at that time.

I wanted to take the next step in my ambitions of learning about construction. I knew about the basic methods and materials, but I wanted to learn more fine-tuned of the whole aspect of construction. Because you know, everybody – you think of construction, people think of just swinging a hammer. But no. It’s more to it than that. There’s more parties.

You got the architect, you got the client, you got us, you got the subcontractors, you got specialized trades, so… From a broad standpoint, I wanted to learn how all of those were connected and how that all comes together in formulating a project.

When I attended Summit, I was just pretty much just coming out of high school. And at that time, a lot of us didn’t know what we wanted to do for sure and so I would say Summit helped me pinpoint that I wanted to do construction. Building construction, I should say. And so it helped put those stepping stones in place.

And another thing that Summit did was open up that networking aspect of construction, because when I started everybody was like: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” And that connection at Summit, I still talk to some of my old classmates and old professors.

So that helped bring that all together and setting me up to now where I’m at and where I’m able to do projects for clients who knew I went to Summit or were a part of Summit at one point and are now, you know, other clients that, you know, they recognize our name and they’re like: “Oh, you went to Summit!” And they want to work with us.

So I would say the networking aspect has been really beneficial from Summit.

Being a project manager at TRI-Construction, pretty much oversees the entire project.

From bidding, to contracts, to planning, and getting the project started from start to finish, pretty much.

So whether that’s tracking manpower, ordering material, coordinating the sub-contractors and submittals – It’s the whole spectrum from start to finish.

When a construction project comes together, you know, it starts on paper. And from paper, it goes from you know, mock ups and then actual construction. So, throughout that whole process there’s a lot of minds coming together, a lot of different areas of trades that come together in collaboration to bring a project from a piece of paper to an actual, physical, structure.

And that’s what I enjoy a lot about construction. It’s seeing the process from start to finish and seeing that end product because that end product, hopefully if it’s built right, will be there for a while and then you can drive past a couple weeks or a couple years later and say: “Oh, that project – I was a part of that project.” And you can tell your friends and your family and then they’ll you know, see that and be like: “Oh wow, you were a part of that.”

Like, yeah, I was, so that’s what I like about it.

So I want to be one of those success stories for Summit and for myself. And if I can lend – You know, I’ve always promoted Summit.

If people aren’t ready to go to college, it’s like, ok, if you’re more of a hands-on learner, go to Summit. Especially now that there’s so many more programs from even when I was there. That, broadened that horizon for them, for opportunities for somebody who doesn’t, who might feel like they’re stuck in a rut and want to get out but they don’t know how – I would recommend Summit.