Driving along Division Street in St. Cloud last fall, you may have seen a chain link fence go up around the parking lot across from Tech High School. Soon after, cement blocks and floor trusses were placed inside the fence.
Fast-forward in time and you saw walls, a roof and several construction workers diligently working on a house. Looking closer you would find the construction workers were students from Tech High School’s Tiger Build program.
16 to 18-year-old students built a house for Habitat For Humanity during the course of the school year. Now completed, it will become a home to a family in need.
One reason for students partnering with Habitat for Humanity is community. The project brought together young and old, different religions, ethnicities and genders. Tech students built community literally and figuratively. They not only learned how to construct a home, but how to recognize the feeling of community and the need to keep it strong.
Piece by piece and board by board, these students are building the skills to go out into the workforce straight from high school.
Tech’s technology teacher, Bill Garceau, leads the group of Tiger Build students.
“We’d have companies swinging by during class and offering jobs to these kids right out of high school,” said Garceau. “Some of the jobs offered were $18 to $20 an hour to start. There’s a real need for construction workers.”
Building a house provides the ultimate in career and technical education. Students learn in different ways. Some students learn from reading books, some from observing. For others, it’s hands-on learning that resonates. Tiger Build students are picking up a hammer and nails, running electrical cords, and installing pipes and ducts. They are acquiring the skills to go out into the world to be our next electricians, plumbers, construction workers, architects and engineers.
“We learned from mistakes. If it was done wrong, we just redid it,” said Garceau.
Students are constructing for discovery. What students try in high school quite often guides them in their career choice in college, vocational school or as an entrance into the workforce post-graduation.
“I’m doing the Youth Build program [this summer] because this is what I want to do,” said Justin Solarz, a junior. “We’re doing the basement this summer and it will take the whole summer to finish it.”
Garceau remembers when he built a home in high school and how it was sold and moved. He never knew what happened to the house after it was finished.
The completed Tiger Build house has been moved to its permanent location on Clearwater Road, where the remainder of the project will be finishing the basement in preparation for a family to move into the home.
The Tech students who worked on the project will drive by with friends, family and possibly their own children one day to show how they contributed to the community by building a home with their own two hands.
Click HERE to view the video!