A Future Built by Hand

SHS Students learn what it means to do an ‘honorable job’ at work & in class

These days, if you ask young people about their future, their answers will likely include something in the tech world –– things such as a software engineer, web developer, or even a social influencer.

But although folks say technology is the future, there’s one program at least at Seguin High School that is helping students literally build their destiny with their own two hands.

On the course for growth and popularity is the high school’s Building Construction Program, where nail guns, electric saws, and specs are the name of the game. A career cluster of hands-on training programs engages kids in various fields, including construction management, electrical, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC).

In fact, the program has gone one step further by entering a community partnership with Habitat for Humanity.

The local classroom is one of two high schools in the San Antonio area to have recently joined the effort of building non-interest loan homes for area families.

Construction Trades Teacher Jason Rice leads instruction in building vertical wall panels for an entire three-bedroom home. Rice says this introductory course has grown to where it can now serve the community and give the students the skills they deserve.

“We are introducing kids to as many construction trades that are out there. Skilled labor isn’t cheap and cheap labor isn’t skilled,” Rice said. “There are blue collar jobs out there. You can make six figures, but you have to be introduced to them and a lot of kids – if their immediate family – mother or father aren’t’ involved in that industry, they don’t have the experience. They don’t know that it exists, so we talk to them about everything. They will take a one-year introduction course that is 90 percent academic with me and then, they will get to use the large power tools. We are designing, doing 3-D drawings. We are learning to read plans and we take the plans and take the wall kit and we are building the walls and the kids are doing this 100 percent on their own. They have me for guidance.”

Rice says helping bridge the partnership with Habitat was Carlos Moreno, owner of Lone Star Solutions. He says the remodeling company located across the street from the high school was the first opportunity for construction trades students to witness Habitat volunteers in action. As a local volunteer for Guadalupe Valley Habitat for Humanity, Moreno has volunteered his workspace to Habitat in San Antonio to build wall panels. He says this eventually led to SHS’s opportunity to make home components on campus.

“We don’t have to move tools, equipment, and kids,” Rice said. “We are just here, ready to go. We can do half of a wall. It can wait, and then the next class comes and finishes it and it’s a pretty perfect match because Habitat needs volunteers. We need, obviously funding for anything involving schools but material and actual projects and that was what  Habitat gives us. They provide the material and the engineered structurally approved plans, and the kids know we are building somebody’s home.” 

After constructing the walls, Rice says the intention will be to join Habitat forces at the various weekend work sites so that students can help get those walls up.

He says that it is essential for kids to see the fruits of their labor and to be amongst professionals whenever possible.

“To have a guest speaker, an air conditioning technician to tell the kids what it is like, what their day-to-day job is like and that they can make a living. They can make a good living,” Rice said. “And whether they be sophomores or juniors, if they want a summer job, you can work fast food and make good money but if you don’t want to be in the restaurant industry, I want to help them get a job in the trades where they can experience it. If the worse thing they do is learn that after working three months for an electrician as a helper, I don’t want to be an electrician that is a successful summer. Now you can target something else. It’s okay to change your mind. Just educating them that you can spend two years between your sophomore and junior year or your junior and senior year working, learning and forming a relationship and there will be employers fighting for you to come work for them out of high school, but it takes time and effort.”

Junior Ethan Rhea is among those staying focused on the job while also taking care of school work. Rhea says he is on the pathway of one day becoming a home builder and is thankful for these opportunities while in high school.

“I eventually want to build houses and so this will get me there and kind of show me the steps but now it has really grown,” he said. “My freshmen year, it was really in the books but now that it is hands-on, I feel like I’m really learning – learning a lot, and it’s really going to help me eventually when I’m going to have to go, and get a job.”

He says he has always loved the hands-on experience and believes it is what drives his passion for construction. So it’s incredibly gratifying to be a part of the Habitat effort now. 

“I think it’s really cool especially because it’s going back to our community and knowing that it can be a friend’s house,” Rhea said. “I think it’s really cool.”

Also looking to step into the industry is Senior Matteo Garcia. He believes Seguin High School is doing its best to prepare him.

“It is great. It gives you a really great experience,” Garcia said. “It prepares you for the workforce. It teaches you how to use common tools.”

Among those working alongside the young men and women as they pieced the walls together on the high school campus were Moreno, a former Matador himself and now a parent and business supporter. Moreno says his dream as a community partner is to one day organize a booster club program and help further facilitate the students’ skills that are being developed thanks to this classroom.

The program’s affiliation with Habitat, he says, is only the first of many opportunities, and he is thankful to have orchestrated the pairing.

“These wall panels are going to stay in Seguin, and they are going to be used to build homes here in Seguin,” Moreno said. “We are going to be building seven homes this year and so, our core guys are going to be busy building homes and so we just know that this is going to help. We don’t know how many wall panels these kids are going to do but they are picking up and learning fast. I’m just thankful for the Seguin High School. They were open to the idea, and they just took off running and also Guadalupe Valley Habitat, San Antonio Habitat, the merge there, when we said we wanted to do this, they just brought the materials. It’s been a group effort.”

Moreno credits Rice for helping to grow the program and for helping to feed a pipeline in the construction industry.

“They say there is a labor shortage. It’s hard to find carpenters, remodels. It’s difficult to find people interested in this trade,” Moreno said. “People want to do TikTok stuff and technology, the Instagram, the YouTube so for these kids to sign up for a class and want to do that and take that initiative, that’s where we want to step in and help grow that. They understand Habitat and what they are doing but when they see those walls go up in a house and when they volunteer, not only is it going to be great for the community, but these kids are going to have a sense of accomplishment and they might want to continue their career in construction and that’s what we are hoping. If we could just create a platform for them so that they can gain more experience, have a better resume so that if they don’t go to college, they can jump on and have a good paying job.”

An honorable job is what those in the industry call it. A job that, no matter the challenges, will always be around. They say people build. That’s what they do. But the building never stops.  •