MC Applied Technologies Students Place Third at National Building Competition

Montgomery College placed third at the 2013 National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Residential Construction Management Competition in the Two-Year College category. Shorieh Talaat, Montgomery College Applied Technologies Department faculty member and Applied Technologies staff member Patti Secreto accompanied a group of MC students to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Residential Construction Management Competition held at the 2013 NAHB International Builders' Show in Las Vegas in January.

More than 50 teams representing universities, community colleges, high schools and career technical schools across the U.S. participated in the annual competition. Montgomery College placed third in the Two-Year College category of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Residential Construction Management Competition.

During the competition, students solve real-life construction management problems and present their solutions to a judging panel of residential construction industry experts.

"Congratulations to the NAHB Student Chapter at Montgomery College," said John Courson, president and CEO of HBI. "They and their competitors showed a great deal of talent along with a depth of understanding of building industry management, from drafting to scheduling to estimating."

HBI administers the NAHB Student Chapters program for NAHB. The students, Jessica Ferraro, Pauline Sipin, Diana Lopez and Derek dela Cruz began working together as a team back in the fall 2012 semester. They devoted long hours in preparing, practicing for and competing in the national competition. In addition to actually presenting before the judges, they also had to put all of their hard work together in a binder which was sent to the NAHB main office.

"The students know they need to work extremely hard to do well because of the level of competition and it's very rewarding as a coach to see them perform so well," Talaat said. "The competition is enormously effective in preparing them for their professional life by learning essential skills in teamwork and pushing themselves to take it to the next level."

"This has consistently been a tremendous learning opportunity for our students. They are engaged in a collaborative problem solving exercise that parallels the best practices of our industry. The technical knowledge required and the emphasis on team-work and cooperation make this an outstanding comprehensive teaching tool," said Professor Mark Corfman, Applied Technologies faculty member and another team coach.

The Department of Applied Technologies is very proud of their faculty, staff, and of course, our students. Congratulations team!