 |
The group poses with company representatives at Shimizu Corporation in front of the morning meeting board. Left to right: Shimizu employees Morii, Shimura and Takakura; students Steve Blentlinger, Joe Pecoraro, Alejandro Bonfil, Christine Strom, Greg Feiereisel, Laura Louie, Kevin Hatcher and Drew Peterson; Associate Professor Feniosky Peņa-Mora; student Monica Lim; and Shimizu employees Tokuda and Yamazaki. |
Future Global Leaders in Construction
Visit Japan
Nine CEE construction management seniors spent a week in Japan in January on a faculty-guided visit to the four largest construction companies in that country. The trip will be an annual feature of the new Global Leaders in Construction Management Program and is designed to give CEE students international exposure and a global perspective on the construction industry, said Associate Professor Feniosky Peņa-Mora, who accompanied the students on the trip.
Peņa-Mora and the students traveled to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka to visit Kajima Corp., Obayashi Corp., Shimizu Corp. and Taisei Corp. over a 10-day period. Company representatives took the students on tours of their corporate offices, research laboratories and current major construction projects. |
?The biggest thing I gained was a worldly perspective on construction,? says Christine Strom, one of the students who took the trip. ?To see how the construction industry operates in Japan compared to how it operates in the U.S. was really a phenomenal experience, because it?s really a lot different.?
?It was an eye-opening event,? agrees senior Monica Lim. ?I just never expected such a different world in construction.?
Cleaner construction sites?at which workers wear uniforms and white gloves, and visitors are asked to put on slippers?was just one difference, Strom said. The students also learned about the Japanese management style, corporate culture, construction technology and recycling practices. In addition, they gained a general appreciation for Japanese culture on what was, for some of them, their first trip outside of the United States.
?One of the most important things, in addition to construction, that I took from [the trip] was just learning about another culture of people,? said student Greg Feiereisel. ?Learning about how the Japanese people interact with each other, how they welcomed us as foreigners?I?ve never seen anything like it in my entire life. Everybody was incredibly welcoming. They welcomed us into their offices, into their homes. They really went out of their way to make us happy, to do everything they possibly could to make sure we were impressed by the way they did things over there.?
This exposure to other cultures is a key component of the Global Leaders in Construction Management Program, in which students earn both bachelor?s and master?s degrees in construction management in five years. The goal is to cultivate graduates who will be prepared to take on leadership roles in construction management, equipped with a practical understanding of the way construction practices vary the world over and the ability to work comfortably with other professionals in a variety of cultural environments. The international trip will be taken in the master?s year, but for this year?s pilot program, the students traveled in their senior year. The same group of students will have the unique benefit of taking another trip next year, when Associate Professor Liang Liu will accompany them to England, France and Italy. Airfare for this year?s trip was funded by the College?s International Programs in Engineering, and a gift to the department from Shell Oil Co. provided the stipend for lodging. The students were responsible for food and internal travel in Japan. |
In addition to international exposure, other unique features of the program include an internship between the senior and master?s year, the opportunity to take electives in business management subjects, and a nine-month, practical-oriented independent study project in which students follow up on and are heavily involved in some aspect of a construction project. Students are chosen for the program based on such factors as their career goals, grade-point average and demonstrated leadership qualities.
?What we are looking for is a profile of a student who, 10 to 20 years from now, will be leaders in construction management,? Peņa-Mora says. Another desirable quality is the ability to reach out to others and forge professional contacts, he says. A goal of the program is to develop professional ?cohorts,? groups who will work closely as students and then maintain those contacts in the professional world.
?It?s very important to create strong networks that will support you through the different aspects of your career,? Peņa-Mora says. ?Part of being a good leader is having a good Rolodex?knowing who to call to get a job done.? |
The group sightsees at Osaka Castle in Osaka, Japan. Left to right: students Monica Lim, Drew Peterson, Kevin Hatcher, Joe Pecoraro, Laura Louie, Steve Blentlinger, Christine Strom, Greg Feiereisel, Alejandro Bonfil, and Associate Professor Feniosky Peņa-Mora. |
The students who traveled to Japan say they were attracted to the program primarily because of the opportunity to gain international exposure and the practical nature of the program, which provides an effective bridge between the academic and professional worlds.
?From my past experience in other internships, I saw that there was a lot of business management,? says senior Alejandro Bonfil. ?There was a lot of accounting, a lot of finance; you have to manage the money to build the project. This program incorporates that very well because you take ? business classes in accounting, finance?things you don?t usually take as a civil engineering student but that are very important and that you?re exposed to in the real world.?
|
Global Leaders in Construction
Management Program
- Students earn B.S. and M.S. degrees in five years
- International trip to visit significant companies, sites
- Internship between senior and master's years
- Practical-oriented independent study project
|
?This program was particularly attractive to me as opposed to just a regular construction management graduate program, because it?s not strictly classroom-based,? says Feiereisel. ?It brings in a variety of different aspects of the industry that we all want to go into. ? And just the interaction with the companies, and the real-world experience that we get from it, makes it in my opinion much more valuable.? |
|
|
