From co-ops to careers, Falcons find a home at Kokosing

How did your experience at BGSU prepare you for your career at Kokosing?

While at BGSU, the course curriculum that the BGSU construction management program provides as well as the knowledge the instructors passed on to us, allowed for a smooth transition into my career at Kokosing.

How did your co-op experience at BGSU help prepare you for a career in your field?

The co-op experience at BGSU allowed me the opportunity to network with a variety of companies and see how a company operates on a day-to-day basis. This allowed me to have an insight on what the company expected and gave me a head start when I began my career.

How does your work at Kokosing align with Kokosing’s core value of being a good member of the community, and BGSU’s mission to create public good?

From my time at BGSU to my career here at Kokosing, helping others and creating public good has been instilled within me due to the willingness of these organizations to continuously provide support for those in need and seek out where they can be assistance to others.

If you were to offer advice to BGSU students in your field, what would you tell them?

Treat school/class just as you would your career. Creating greats habits in school such as showing up to class on time and turning work in when its due will allow you to carry these habits into your career, which will then result in success. BGSU has a lot of great things to offer, but it is up to you to take advantage of the opportunities.

How did your experience at BGSU prepare you for your career at Kokosing?

I had a great advisor in Travis Chapin, who made sure we were prepared. Travis spent a lot of effort in attracting contractors to our program and getting us students comfortable with the interactions. My most memorable times were field trips and estimating competitions.

How did your co-op experience at BGSU help prepare you for a career in your field?

I had great experiences and mentors during my co-ops. I was able to work for three separate companies with different work scopes, which diversified and prepared me more.

If you were to offer advice to BGSU students in your field, what would you tell them?

Be involved in anything you can be. It leads to creating long-lasting relationships, helps you to gain experience in your field and helps to polish you before you are introduced to the real world.

How did your experience at BGSU prepare you for your career at Kokosing?

The course curriculum is in alignment with your expectations for entering into the construction industry. Whether you choose a career as a field or office lead, everything you take from the construction management program will apply to your daily roles in either of these career paths you choose to take. The preconstruction and project software taught at BGSU is some of the same programs we currently utilize companywide.

How did your co-op experience at BGSU help prepare you for a career in your field?

The co-op opportunities give you a real life experience of what your responsibilities will entail upon graduation and acceptance of your full-time position. The co-op opportunities give you the flexibility to try multiple roles, responsibilities, and locations, if you so desire. I would suggest taking full advantage of these opportunities, and don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone during these unique experiences.  

How does your work at Kokosing align with Kokosing’s core value of being a good member of the community, and BGSU’s mission to create public good?

 There are always opportunities available to the entire company to be able to give back to the local communities through Kokosing, and the flexibility given to participate in these activities is made easy through the organization.

If you were to offer advice to BGSU students in your field, what would you tell them?

You are not going to know everything there is to know about construction upon graduation. When you receive an opportunity to put your education to work, don’t be afraid to ask questions – this will be a valuable tool for you to obtain the information needed to be successful in this industry.

How did your experience at BGSU prepare you for your career at Kokosing?

Having professors who had experience working in the construction industry, having high expectations for their students, and the work/tasks completed. In most of my classes, I felt as if I was being prepared for my career, not just an exam.

How did your co-op experience at BGSU help prepare you for a career in your field?

It would have been much more difficult to understand what construction management, or the construction industry, was all about without the co-op experience. Listening to professors in class or studying textbooks is one thing, but to actually experience working for a general contractor is a whole other level of education.

How does your work at Kokosing align with Kokosing’s core value of being a good member of the community, and BGSU’s mission to create public good?

It is important to be a good community member in the areas where we work to show that we are invested in our projects. It benefits the owner, community and contractor to have a good working relationship and build high-quality projects. If the community and owners like and appreciate the work the contractor has done, it usually results in future projects together.

If you were to offer advice to BGSU students in your field, what would you tell them?

Work hard, ask for help, and do more than what is expected. When you go to work for a company, co-op or full time, absorb as much information as you can from coworkers who have more experience. You never stop learning, so always keep an open mind.

How did your experience at BGSU prepare you for your career at Kokosing?

The real-world, hands-on experience that you get at BGSU is second to none. The professors and administrators go above and beyond to set you up for success.

How did your co-op experience at BGSU help prepare you for a career in your field?

Each co-op experience built on the last one. By the time the co-ops and course work were completed, you were ready and comfortable to go out and join the work force.

How does your work at Kokosing align with Kokosing’s core value of being a good member of the community, and BGSU’s mission to create public good?

With BGSU being rooted in a small town, it instills in you what it means to be part of the community. As a student, I was encouraged to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and Camp Storer. Those experiences I have carried throughout my career, and still to this day, I volunteer and donate to those organizations whenever I can. Kokosing also helps encourage and affords me the possibility to do those things.

If you were to offer advice to BGSU students in your field, what would you tell them?

My program administrator use to tell all of us to get comfortable with getting out of your comfort zone. When you get out of your comfort zone, you open the door to new opportunities.

How did your experience at BGSU prepare you for your career at Kokosing?

My time spent at BGSU helped develop my professional skills, which was vital to my integration into the industry setting. Having the ability to operate with a solution-oriented mind not only allows for us to overcome the inevitable challenges we face, but also encourages me to take on new challenges in hopes of developing new skillsets.

How did your co-op experience at BGSU help prepare you for a career in your field?

Having spent one summer in the field and two summers in the office, I feel that my co-op experiences were absolutely vital to my success after transitioning to a full-time position. There are always things that cannot be taught in a classroom setting, and the co-op program filled many of those gaps.

How does your work at Kokosing align with Kokosing’s core value of being a good member of the community, and BGSU’s mission to create public good?

I believe that it is the people within an organization who truly define who that organization is. Creating an environment of people who genuinely care for the community around them has been an intentional decision made by that organization. The fact that Kokosing and BGSU both share a similar value shows that they recognize their impact reaches far beyond the walls of their buildings and want those impacts to benefit the communities in which they operate.

If you were to offer advice to BGSU students in your field, what would you tell them?

The co-op program was by far the most beneficial aspect of my time spent at BGSU. Use it as an opportunity to absorb as much knowledge, meet as many people and open as many doors for the future as possible.

How did your experience at BGSU prepare you for your career at Kokosing?

The professors at BGSU stressed the importance of networking and making connections. This skillset has been beneficial to my career and personal life. The construction industry is composed of many teams, some large and some small, and in those teams, we need to understand our peers’ communication styles. The only way to get to know your peers is to take the time to connect with them and learn the best way to communicate with each other. Travis Chapin embodied that skillset and the necessity to use it in our professional careers. Travis forced us to get out of our comfort zones, he taught us connections skills without us even knowing it. In addition to networking, the small knit classroom experiences built a team to help us learn. It employed the term “it takes all of us” to achieve the results we strived for. The instructors’ open-door policy allowed me to get further clarity on a subject matter and grasp the knowledge to grow. I truly cannot say enough positive comments about my education and experience at BGSU.

How did your co-op experience at BGSU help prepare you for a career in your field?

The path for my current employment was paved for me during one of my co-ops. By having had a great co-op experience with Kokosing, this allowed me to understand what it is like to work for a company that genuinely cares about my family and my growth in the industry. I quickly learned during my co-op experience the importance of what “Shirt Sleeve Manage” meant, one of Kokosing’s core values, and the importance to jump into a problem and find the solution. It was during this co-op experience that I also learned it is paramount to have clarity in your interactions with your team members. We achieve results through others and have to know how to communicate to get the results we are looking for.

How does your work at Kokosing align with Kokosing’s core value of being a good member of the community, and BGSU’s mission to create public good?

By not only having the concern for the well-being of every team member, Kokosing cares about the people in the areas they work. The opportunity to give back to those less fortunate keeps me humble. We strive to help our local food pantries, hospitals and those who have special circumstances. Kokosing has outreached to various communities in the many geographical areas they work in to hire from within. We want the people that come to work for us to be ambassadors for those communities and accountable for the project(s) that we build. At the end of the day, we want our people and projects to continue to better themselves.

If you were to offer advice to BGSU students in your field, what would you tell them?

Make connections and care about your team. The construction industry is very vast, with many different fields and roles. Be ready to grow and be humble to do the work.

How did your experience at BGSU prepare you for your career at Kokosing?

My experience at BGSU provided me a broad general foundation of construction means and methods, computer applications and business practices that served as the baseline for me to reference as I began and continue my career with Kokosing.

How did your co-op experience at BGSU help prepare you for a career in your field?

I was fortunate to co-op with Kokosing for three summers. This provided me the experience with different project types and supervisors providing me the exposure to different construction practices and methods of management prior to officially beginning my career. I was then able to take these field experience and better relate them to a classroom application.

How does your work at Kokosing align with Kokosing’s core value of being a good member of the community, and BGSU’s mission to create public good?

Kokosing makes a concerted effort to have a positive impact on the communities we work in whether that be donating financially to children’s hospitals, for example, or volunteering our time on improving parks and recreational facilities for communities. Just like Kokosing, while at BGSU, the Student Construction Management Association also donated financially with student time on things like Habitat for Humanity houses and STEM events at BGSU’s campus.

If you were to offer advice to BGSU students in your field, what would you tell them?

As important as you may believe your co-ops are, do not overlook your time in the classroom as you learn how to problem solve and analyze your answers prior to making a final decision.

How did your experience at BGSU prepare you for your career at Kokosing?

Travis Chapin insisted on bringing real-world experience into the classroom, which I found very beneficial. He found opportunities to fuel our excitement about a career in construction by challenging us to solve a variety of construction problems using what we learned in class. Beyond the construction-specific courses, I specifically found the technical writing class taught by Bonnie Fink to be extremely helpful in preparing me for my career. I encourage all of our co-op students to enroll in a similar course before graduating.

How does your work at Kokosing align with Kokosing’s core value of being a good member of the community, and BGSU’s mission to create public good?

Our team members build projects that improve people's lives in many aspects. Beyond the direct impacts of infrastructure improvement projects, such as water quality improvement, reducing traffic congestion, reducing flooding and erosion, etc., we also look each year into the communities where we work for opportunities to support various charities, including local food banks, United Way campaigns and children's hospitals. 

If you were to offer advice to BGSU students in your field, what would you tell them?

Look for opportunities to strengthen your written and oral communication skills. In our business, those who are able to effectively communicate with people at all levels will advance quickly.

How did your experience at BGSU prepare you for your career at Kokosing?

The differentiator from other school construction management programs versus BGSU’s program was Travis Chapin, who spent over half of his career in the construction industry, and shared his knowledge to prepare us for the industry. He connected the construction management program with the industry. He had construction industry professionals teach or supplement portions of certain classes, such as surveying, safety, construction law, estimating, scheduling, etc. In doing so, we learned the most up-to-date content, software, the why and how it is applied to prepare us for entry. Travis also brought in construction industry professionals, multiple times throughout the year, to present to the Student Construction Management Association (SCMA) on relevant construction topics and where the professors would also attend these sessions. He also coordinated  jobsite tours for students to attend, which helped visualize what we were learning and assisted in networking with construction professionals.

How did your co-op experience at BGSU help prepare you for a career in your field?

I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to complete each co-op on different types of construction projects (water line, wastewater treatment, highway widening, bridge) in varying roles such as laborer, pipelayer, field engineer and assistant superintendent, with great supervisors, who were each subject matter experts, and took the time to mentor/coach me. These co-op experiences helped bring the course work at BGSU to life and made my learning experience at BGSU complete.

BGSU requiring three co-ops to graduate is a driving force to turning out top graduates into the industry!

How does your work at Kokosing align with Kokosing’s core value of being a good member of the community, and BGSU’s mission to create public good?

Kokosing and BGSU are aligned on the core value of being a good member of the community. Kokosing provides opportunities for our team members to be involved with hands-on projects to help pay it forward in the communities we work and live in, along with opportunities to financially give back.

The infrastructure that Kokosing builds and the quality that is expected at Kokosing enhances the lives of so many people throughout the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic.

If you were to offer advice to BGSU students in your field, what would you tell them?

Get involved. Your learning experience and relationships will be determined by the level of effort you put in. Be a member of SCMA, take a leadership role in SCMA, compete in the estimating competitions, take the lead on setting up and attending project site tours and take every opportunity to network with industry. The construction industry will welcome the opportunity to network with you or host a group of students on project sites.

How did your experience at BGSU prepare you for your career at Kokosing?

I gained a lot of experience throughout my time at BGSU, and a lot of different classes have been applied to my work with Kokosing. Some of these experiences include Excel, construction materials, scheduling and contracts. But out of all of these experiences, there is one specific class I can remember that stood out to me the most and helped prepare me for a career at Kokosing, which was my first introduction to construction class with Joe Lavalette. These lessons did not consist of equations or software, but instead were life lessons and what to expect going into a career in the construction industry. At times, Joe may have seemed like he was being brutal with us, but he was very honest and never beat around the bush explaining the hardships we face in the construction industry. Those life lessons have stuck with me, and I have applied those to my everyday life in the industry. Without them, I don’t believe I would have gotten as far as I have with Kokosing.

How did your co-op experience at BGSU help prepare you for a career in your field?

My co-op experience was a tremendous help preparing me for a career in construction. Being out on my co-ops, I was able to gain real-time experience in field and office work. During my time in the field, I was able to gain the knowledge of construction processes, how important safety is, and what it is truly like to be working out in the field with our workers on a day-to-day basis, and I was able to take those experiences with me into the office, where I was able to apply what was being done out in the field with what needed to be done in the office to keep the job rolling smoothly. Having those real experiences and being able to get my hands into it has enabled me to come into the industry prepared for the career I had chosen.

How does your work at Kokosing align with Kokosing’s core value of being a good member of the community, and BGSU’s mission to create public good?

Kokosing’s core values are values that we stay true to and hold a lot of pride in. Being a good member of the community is one of those values that we place a priority on. Team members at Kokosing want to make sure the community is satisfied with not only the work we are doing, but also how we are able to help others outside of the construction field. BGSU gave that same feeling when I was there. BGSU was focused on their students and making sure they were getting the best education they possibly could, but also making sure the community around Bowling Green was being taken care outside of education, whether that be donations, food drives or blood drives.

If you were to offer advice to BGSU students in your field, what would you tell them?

First, and foremost, enjoy your time as a student at BGSU. College is a once in a life-time experience, so take it all in while you have the chance. During your time at BGSU, make sure you’re taking every opportunity that comes your way. There’s so many out there, and it’s better to do it and not enjoy it, than to never do it and regret that later on. Along with that, don’t be afraid to get out there and meet new people, especially the students that are in the same major as you. Those connections could lead to so many great opportunities and friendships down the road. Get involved and join a school association such as the Student Construction Management Association, or even a social club. Take that extra step and participate in some community outreach projects like the Habitat for Humanity houses. Those types of things really do help out the community more than you could imagine. Make sure you go to the construction job fairs every year, and network with every company possible. It’s never a bad thing to have too many connections. For those who have co-ops, make sure you’re soaking in every bit of knowledge you can while you’re out there. That kind of experience is what takes you to the next level in your career with construction. Lastly, and most importantly, make sure you are staying on top of your studies. I know that sounds like something your parents say, but it is true. You are being taught by some of the best professors I have ever had at BGSU, and they’re there to help you gain the most knowledge possible before sending you off to the industry. Don’t sell yourself short, listen to what they have to say, read what they want you to read. Their main goal is to see you succeed.

How did your experience at BGSU prepare you for your career at Kokosing?

While I attended BGSU I made lifelong friendships and connections with many Kokosing employees. I learned that Kokosing has a strong family atmosphere, and that helped me choose Kokosing as an employer.

How did your co-op experience at BGSU help prepare you for a career in your field?

Hands-0on experience is the best. You can apply what you have learned in the classroom and use that to work in the field.

How does your work at Kokosing align with Kokosing’s core value of being a good member of the community, and BGSU’s mission to create public good?

The projects I have worked on with Kokosing have all created an improvement to those communities. New and safe highways and bridges are important to the public. I am proud to have helped create the new Corridor H project, which greatly benefits the state of West Virginia and its residents.

If you were to offer advice to BGSU students in your field, what would you tell them?

 Enjoy your time in college and make friends for those connections will help you in the workforce.