Over the course of eight days this fall, The Hagerman Institute conducted our Student Engagement and Little Hard Hats programs with 1,433 K-12 students at the Switzerland County School Corporation in Vevay, Indiana. Hagerman is currently working on two projects for the school system – replacing the HVAC system at Switzerland County Elementary School, and a connector wing between Switzerland County Middle School and High School including additional classroom space, restrooms, and storage.
Starting on September 21 and concluding on November 10, sixteen Hagerman employees gave their time to educate these students through hands-on learning experiences.
The Student Engagement Program is tailored for students grades 5-12. A Construction Career Assembly was conducted where the students watched short videos with career spotlights, including spotlights on being a Project Superintendent, Assistant Project Manager, VDC Engineer, and Safety Manager. The Hagerman Institute team then shared various construction career opportunities as well as the pathways to get to these careers. Afterwards, the students put on their PPE to tour the school’s connector wing project and new classroom spaces.
The Little Hard Hats program is tailored to students grades K-4. These students participated in six interactive construction-related stations for 20 minutes at a time. They learned the importance of PPE, participated in a hands–on masonry demonstration, played a construction game show, were challenged to build the tallest tower, walked through a project virtually, and finally, took a tour of the newly constructed school connector wing and new classroom spaces. These stations taught the students about safety on a construction site, skills for bricklaying, construction knowledge, engineering skills, virtual reality in construction, and what it is like to be on an active construction jobsite.
“Opportunities like this are important to The Hagerman Group, The Hagerman Institute, and the future of the construction industry,” stated Sarah Walker, Director of The Hagerman Institute. “We are dedicated to ensuring that students are informed and excited about the many careers that the construction industry has to offer. Our hope is that every school-aged child understands that no matter what their interest is, there is more than likely a career in the construction industry to support it.”
The Hagerman Institute enjoyed putting together this one-of-a-kind, large-scale program for the students of the Switzerland County School Corporation!
