Construction management students place fourth nationally

A complement of Pennsylvania College of Technology students recently traveled to Kissimmee, Florida, for the 2023 Student Chapter Construction Management Competition, placing fourth overall after diligently persevering through three rounds of toil and scrutiny.

Teammates, all enrolled in the college’s four-year construction management major, were Noah H. Jumper, of Shippensburg; Conor B. Laraia, of Chambersburg; Todd I. Lavish, of Chester Springs; Danielle E. Malesky, of Biglerville; and Michael Messina, of Nazareth. The students placed second in Safety, and fourth in Estimating, Project Management and Quality Control.

“The students worked tirelessly for the two months leading up to the travel,” said Wayne R. Sheppard, associate professor of construction management, who also served as team coach and chauffer. “They spent hundreds of hours working through all of the challenges, then did very well during both stages of the competition in Florida. I am very proud of all of their efforts, but was also proud of how they took advantage of the networking and other professional development opportunities during the trip.”

As one of 21 contenders in the competition during the Associated Builders and Contractors’ annual convention, held this year in the Gaylord Palms Hotel and Resort, the Penn College group was handed a request for proposals to provide various transformative spaces for students and faculty at Lake Highland Preparatory School’s Center for Innovation & Academics.

The project site – a 70,000-square-foot facility that would host a student union, library, college and career center, administrative offices, innovation hub, various labs and classrooms, a gallery, and study bar – is on the school’s 42-acre campus in downtown Orlando and is in the first phase of an ongoing capital improvement plan.

“I am very proud of what we were able to accomplish,” said Laraia, who noted that Penn College was the only “college” in the mix. All other schools were such bigger-name institutions as Clemson, Colorado State and Michigan State – as well as Florida International University, which was crowned the overall champion.

“Our second-place finish and consistent fourth-place finishes in the other categories shows how well we did. We put a well-rounded proposal together, and that can be seen by our placements,” he added. “The competition can be demanding at times, taking six weeks of work, seven days a week, most of the time 10 hours or more per day. My team was able to dive into the RFP documents and put their best effort into their work. As captain, I couldn’t have asked for a better team.”

Laraia and Malesky were returnees from the 2022 competition, the first to be held after a COVID-related hiatus. The Penn College team finished seventh at that event, which was in San Antonio.

“As this was my second year competing, I was very excited to improve upon our previous submission from last year,” Laraia said. “It was also important to me to keep the legacy of our program within the competition, and encourage future students to compete and represent well. I look forward to hearing about the future teams’ accomplishments and offering my knowledge wherever and whenever needed.”

For more about Penn College’s construction management major in the School of Engineering Technologies, call 570-327-4520.

For information about the college, a national leader in applied technology education, email the Admissions Office or call toll-free 800-367-9222.