Building Communities
Engaging Students, Faculty and Communities Through K-12 Construction
Community engagement is more than good stewardship. We create meaningful relationships and embed our teams in the communities where we work. Our entire team is looking for ways to engage and give back. It might be building a float for the community parade, providing fireworks after a home football game, sponsoring a BBQ fundraiser, participating in a local food drive, supporting teachers or providing tours for community members of the new facilities.
Along with engaging the communities, we love engaging with the students and staff at the schools we are building. Construction sites offer real-world lessons and experiences for science, math and physics. This exposure gives students a first-hand glimpse into construction, a career path they might not otherwise have considered. We incorporate students in all aspects of the process including site tours, career day, classroom presentations and construction clubs. We also support other creative education ideas our clients bring to our team throughout the course of the project.
When you build with McCownGordon, we engage the community and schools through many different avenues. Here are just a few ways we engaged in the past.
HANDS-ON LEARNING THROUGH CLASSROOM INTEGRATION
From internships to class tours, our construction team provides students with the best hands-on learning experience, especially those interested in the construction industry and trades.
Turner Middle School: While building the Turner Middle School, a Turner high school student was especially interested in construction as a future career. His mentor reached out to our team to brainstorm ideas to show this student the ropes. McCownGordon found a way to create an internship, where he experienced construction firsthand. Throughout his internship, we connected him with foremen on the site, where he could learn from them, get an understanding of what he liked. He has since leveraged his relationships and, after graduating high school, has been working as a carpenter.
Grain Valley R-5 High School Additions: When schools offer engineering classes, our construction teams work with teachers to discover ways to incorporate their lessons in conjunction with the construction project. At Grain Valley High School, the students gained hands-on experience and valuable skills in the construction industry while on a tour of the Grain Valley North Middle School.
North Kansas City Schools: As part of the North Kansas City Schools College & Career Pathways learning initiative, high school juniors selected to be a part of the Career Mentorship Program meet monthly with a career mentor with a profession in their ‘pathway’. McCownGordon brought these students to an active jobsite for the NKC School District where they learned about jobsite and worker safety, construction processes, construction career paths and statistics, and construction materials. The students toured the job site, asking great questions and gaining valuable exposure to the professional world and all the people and professions it takes to do work.
Montezuma Elementary School: Our construction team decked the elementary students out with personal protective equipment including hardhats, high visibility vests and safety glasses. They were then ready to go on a mini field trip, stomping through the dirt of where their new preschool and music room will attach to their current school. This made not only a great photo opp, but will also leave a lasting memory for these students as they are at the same facility all the way through high school.
Logan Intergenerational Family Education (LIFE) Center: We partnered with the civil engineer in tandem with the LIFE project to hold a class presentation on site surveying for local Jr/Sr. High School students. This provided exposure to a future career possibility in addition to learning outside the classroom.
TEACHER APPRECIATION
Construction is certainly an exciting time, but it may start feeling like an inconvenience. McCownGordon has gratitude for teachers and the patience they show our teams, especially when it causes change to their typical teaching methods and routines.
Tonganoxie High School: To show our appreciation to the teachers at Tonganoxie High School our construction team sent a cupcake truck to the teachers.
North Kansas City School: The teachers at the Gateway 6th Grade Center enjoyed a taco lunch during a workday courtesy of the construction team.
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
This is the student’s school and we want them to take pride in the construction process. From designing unique ground breaking shovels, to cutting the ribbon on their new facility, we encourage student engagement throughout the project.
Toganoxie High school: Our construction team also wanted to engage with the high school students during the construction of their school. The team invited the students to sign a steel beam and participate in the topping out ceremony. Now those students’ names will live in the school forever.
Emporia Jones Early Childhood Center: Ribbon cuttings symbolize the idea of new beginnings for those entering the building. To build anticipation and excitement the construction team and owner invited students to the Jones Early Childhood Center to cut the ribbon to their new school.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMNT
Our purpose is to improve lives. Along with building learning facilities, we do this by getting involved in the community and improving the lives of those community members.
North Kansas City Schools:Â Julie Garvey, Sr. Project Engineer, volunteers her time as a mentor to four North Kansas City students to help guide them on a path after high school.
Belton High School:Â McCownGordon is deeply committed to a vision for bettering the communities we work in. The project team at Belton High school conducted a food drive for a local charity.
We look forward to building or renovating your school and are excited to work with your community to build a stronger community through our engagement strategies.
