Colorado State Construction Management Team Awarded Top National Honors by Associated Builders and Contractors

The Colorado State University construction management team was honored as Grand Champions recently at the Associated Builders and Contractors national convention in Honolulu and placed first in the project management/scheduling competition category. The team received $3,500 in cash awards.

The construction management team competed among 19 other schools, including Brigham Young University, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech and Purdue. Teams competed in three areas: project management/scheduling, estimating and safety.

"This competition is a great way for students to integrate what they’ve learned in class to real-world situations," said Michael Nobe, Associated Builders and Contractors student chapter adviser and Colorado State team coach.

Team members included John Donakowski, Joe Glaze, Casey Reed Williams, Karl William McKee and Nobe.

"These competitions can teach a person a lot about their personal strengths and weaknesses," Williams said. "We came back to the university with better leadership and teamwork skills."

The Colorado State construction management team was defending the title of Grand Champions that was bestowed upon them at last year’s competition when the team also placed first in estimating, third in project administration and third in safety. The team with the highest point total, determined by industry judges, is declared the winner.

Student teams participated in an intensive six-hour competition, working on a problem based on an actual commercial renovation in Hawaii that required the teams to solve numerous project management dilemmas.

Colorado State also was represented by Tawnya Marie Kilpatrick, whose essay about construction sustainability – building designs, construction and management practices that are sensitive to the environment – was selected and awarded $1,000. Kilpatrick was one of three student presenters invited to speak at the convention. More than a dozen entries were submitted from schools across the nation.

A 2002 report by the Engineering News-Record named Colorado State’s construction management program as having the largest student enrollment in the nation with 630 students. The report also mentioned that the program has the largest number of women graduates in the country and is listed as fourth in the number of organizations that recruit its students. The program is accredited by the American Council for Construction Education.

For more information about the Construction Management program at Colorado State, visit www.cahs.colostate.edu/mtcm.

-30-