During the week of July 15-20, 23 high school students hailing from across Northern and Southern California attended the SRBX (Sacramento Regional Builders’ Exchange) CREATE Summer Academy, a six-day, five night mentoring camp for students showing interest in careers in construction, re-development, engineering architecture and all the trades. The students were tasked with designing a real life project for Fairytale Town, completing a needs assessment, meeting industry executives, touring active job sites, and exploring Sacramento while staying on the university campus of Sacramento State.

At the Summer Academy, the students’ schedules were jam packed daily, from their arrival on Sunday up until the camp’s closing ceremonies the following Friday where the students presented their final projects. The students built a new enclosure for the rabbit exhibit, and presentations focused on the project process and events during the week, including their favorite parts of this incredible learning experience.

Joyce Fuss, an Associate in Engineering with Lionakis, volunteered as an Academy mentor, supporting the efforts of the Mentoring Program leading the students in an ice-breaker activity with co-mentor James Willsie of HGA. This was not Joyce’s first round of volunteering with the program, and she plans to continue supporting CREATE Mentoring:

“I have been involved with mentoring local high school students through the SRBX education Foundation for 10 years now. I started out as a mentor and served at three school sites over a period of 7 years, and have been on the board for the last 4 years. One of my students is now an architect at Lionakis and it is very rewarding to see the impact of our efforts. I am honored to be a part of this momentum to contribute to the future of our industry and address the need for talented young professionals in careers that build a better future for our community!”
– Joyce Fuss, Associate, Lionakis

The week-long camp was a huge success, making Lionakis proud to sponsor the Summer Academy and its efforts to provide meaningful benefits to both our future and present communities. Lionakis is also proud to be part of the vast sponsor group that made the event possible, and would like to extend their thanks to the volunteers, mentors and students. Special thanks to SRBX for hosting this amazing event, and a shout out to Katie Carbone and Jordan Blair of SRBX Education Foundation for their leadership and hard work!

To read more on the CREATE Mentoring Program and the Summer Academy, visit their website at https://www.srbx.org/create-mentoring-program.html.

For more photos and information on the event, visit their Facebook HERE