Initially established in 1908 to give “boys who wished to enter a trade a better opportunity,” the gives students the opportunity to specialize is a self-selected major during their final two years of enrollment. Hector Najera had grown up watching his father working on a variety of construction sites; he had always known that he would follow a similar path and chose Benson’s “Building Construction Technology” program his junior and senior year. And while that program gave him opportunities to help him choose a career path – a part-time gig working for a local wood shop or a visit to the Pacific Northwest Carpenter’s Institute – it wasn’t until 2018 when he enrolled at that Hector knew where he truly belonged: construction management.
As an intern for P&C Construction, Hector is currently working part-time at the Sabin-Schellenberg Professional Technical Center’s South Campus in Milwaukie, Oregon. This is not Hector’s first internship: he’s worked for public entities helping PM’s on park projects and for other GC’s in the Portland-Metro area. So, when we asked Hector what attracted him most to P&C’s Internship Program, he said, “…P&C offered training over winter and spring break. I didn’t want to start fresh when work began in the summer. I thought it would be helpful to familiarize myself with P&C as early as possible.”
Working alongside the project superintendent and project engineer, Hector’s time onsite includes processing Requests for Information (RFI’s), submittals and logging project documents using programs like Procore, Smartsheet and Bluebeam. Additionally, he has been tasked with documenting the roof demolition work throughout the summer using a company drone. This way the various project stakeholders will have a chance to see how the work is progressing.
Though Hector plans to keep interning while he attends OSU, he hopes to sign on with a general contractor before graduation. From there maybe it’s a position in field engineering and eventually into a senior project management position. Based on the qualities he brings to P&C and the assiduous way with which he handles himself onsite, we see nothing standing in Hector’s way!
Categories: Construction, Employee Highlight