Students Connect at AGC Convention

AGC of America is pleased to announce that we had nearly 150 students from college and universities across the nation attend the AGC Student Chapter Annual Meeting held during AGC’s 94th Annual Convention in Palm Springs in early March. The meeting kicked off with a rousing welcome by 2013 AGC President Paul Diederich, whose first national AGC leadership opportunity occurred in 1980, when he was asked to step in as chair of the Student Chapter Task Force of the Construction Education Committee immediately after graduating from Arizona State University. Jack Kelley, president of AGC Education & Research Foundation, announced the winner of the 2013 James L. Allhands Essay: Jacob Kleiman of Marquette University and his faculty sponsor, Mark Federle. Second place went to Todd Rapoport of Clemson University; third place was a tie between Matthew Dunk and Sean O’Shea of Texas A&M. Finally, Mr. Kelley announced the 2013 Outstanding Educator: David Shirah of California State University, Chico. AGC of America would like to thank all the students and faculty for attending, we had students from 23 higher education institutions, eight from California, and Oregon State, two colleges in Nebraska, the University of Louisiana at Monroe, Iowa State, just to name a few. We’d also like to thank our very generous sponsors: for providing lunch and an ice cream break: the AGC Education and Research Foundation, Hensel Phelps Construction and Foundation Board member emeritus Pete Wert. For the first time, all three Outstanding Student Chapter Contest winners were able to attend the Convention and give a presentation on their award-winning community service project so attendees heard from first-place winner Chico State University; second-place winner, Pittsburg State University; and third-place winner Boise State University. There was also an informative presentation on Lean Practices – A Great Project Control by Brad Carter, Senior Project Manager, Turner Construction Co. The meeting ended with the annual – and very popular – roundtable mentoring session with AGC’s Construction Leadership Council Steering Committee. Our mid-career professionals, whose mission includes connecting with AGC’s Student Chapters, provide some career, industry and life guidance to these young people, who very well could be future leaders of the industry and AGC.