Derrick Davis, a restaurant operator, has a clear sense of the way the Construction Trades Program at Meridian Community College can nourish his work.

“I take old restaurant buildings and refurbish them,” said Davis, 46, who noted that he’s also earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. “I used to just put paint jobs on them. I took construction trades so I could put new facades on them and renovate them. My favorite saying is ‘turn lemons into lemonade.’”

Davis lives in Vicksburg, and a large part of his connection to the area, he explained, is his ownership of the Meridian business Wingo’s — but he wants to take the learning he’s doing at MCC to other communities in the state, as well.

Inter-program collaboration

Michael Shirley, coordinator of the Construction Trades Program at MCC, works closely with Jim Miles, who coordinates the Electrical Technology Program. Students in both programs combine to work on a number of campus-based, real-world projects — and Miles serves as the project director for these endeavors.

Their largest current project involves the construction of a track-and-field facility for the college.

The two programs, which allow students to earn one-year certificates, are part of MCC’s Career and Technical Division.

“They pull together,” said Richie McAlister, MCC’s associate vice president of Workforce Education. “They’re not separate and distinct.

McAlister, who has a doctorate in higher education, said it’s not uncommon for students to earn a certificate in one program and then earn one in the other.

A long list of MCC building projects has benefited from the work of students from the Career and Technical Division, including the MCC Foundation Chapel, the Ralph E. Young Jr. Center for Adult Basic Education, the Rush School of Practical Nursing, the David H. Quave Student Life Center, the Holladay Center for eLearning, the C.D. Smith Field House (soccer), the Jimmie Evans Field House (tennis), the Smith-Williams Field House (baseball) and Weddington Hall.

The students also constructed the Johnson-Purvis Board Room in the Tommy E. Dulaney Center, including the crafting of a “16-foot-long butcher block table out of the scrap maple we had left from the trim on the cabinets,” Shirley said.

On Thursday, the students were busy constructing a tool room in the MCC-Riley Workforce Development Center.

Math in a different light

Shirley, who worked in a family construction business before starting as program coordinator last year, noted a number of skills that students hone through the Construction Trades Program.

Reading a tape measure, he said, is “paramount to anything they’ll ever do in this business.”

He also noted general math skills and being able to visualize a project’s direction. Working swiftly and efficiently with numbers, he stressed, is vital to the work.

“This year, we had a pilot program, and we actually put them in a math class for about an hour on Monday,” he said. “If they passed it, then they didn’t have to go back for the rest of the week. But if they didn’t pass, they did a math tutorship all week and took another task on Friday.”

That program, he said, was a success.

“It propelled my class this year almost six months ahead of my class last year at this time,” he said.

Shirley said the students can do math — but traditional classroom terminology, he noted, does not always work for them.

“They do algebra; they do geometry,” he said. “But you can’t tell them what they’re doing because their brains shut down. If you show them, ‘Hey, this is a set of stairs, this is how you cut rafters, this is how you lay out a wall and divide the windows up,’ it starts making sense because they can put their hands on it.”

Shannon Bedwell, a 19-year-old Construction Trades student from western Alabama, noticed that same pattern in his own learning.

“You put me in a classroom, and I wouldn’t be able to do it as well as I could do the math here,” he said, “because (here) I can put my hands on it and work it.”

Range of student motives

Students in both the Construction Trades and Electrical Technology programs harbor a wide range of reasons for enrolling.

Some are just beginning their careers, and others — like Davis — want to hone skills that could allow them to improve work they’ve done in the past.

Paolo Salazar, a 19-year-old student in the Electrical Technology program, wants “to become a master electrician, start my own company and work for myself.”

Sandy Ferrill, 45, has worked in food-service management and has also owned rental properties. For years, he said, he’s wanted to develop his knowledge of electrical technology.

“This bug started for me about 15 years ago,” he said. “I had rental property, and I was in there trying to do work — but there was work I couldn’t do. As time progressed and I learned more, I wanted to know more.”

James Caraway, 19, is also enrolled in electrical technology — and he, too, noted the way his learning style meshes well with the rhythm of the work he does in the program.

“I like to read, but reading doesn’t help me to learn,” he said. “I have to do it hands-on.”

Shirley said students in the program have received positive reinforcement for their work during their time in the program. He noted, for instance, strong performances among MCC students in state-level SkillsUSA competitions last school year.

He and the students, though, are also looking ahead. Shirley said the students emerge from the program with technical skills but also with further-reaching attributes such as strong concentration and well-developed work habits.

And Davis, the student who operates restaurants, sees the way construction skills can contribute to the health of a community.

“Especially in the African American communities, you’ll see a lot of times that the big-box chains … once they’ve done their 25 year-run, they’re gone,” he said. “Then they’ll leave that building there and it becomes an eyesore in the community. I can take advantage of these skills and put a facade on it, put a new bathroom in it — and use it.”