Young Professionals

For Derek Robbins, becoming an HVAC director and sheet metal instructor was never part of the plan. “Teaching kind of found me. Looking back now, that road seems like a no-brainer for me,” he says. While the road to discovering his passion for teaching was under construction for...

“Hey, let’s roll.” This is what Sarah Wallace—a military spouse, mother of three and wife to ABC’s 2025 Young Professional of the Year, Ray Wallace—said in 2021 when she learned her family would be moving…again. The couple, who married following Wallace’s second deployment, have ...

When late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was asked when there will be enough women serving on the Supreme Court, she famously responded, “When there are nine.” It seems the construction industry is beginning to feel that same way when it comes to recruiting young girls and women. It...

A Mexican American and the daughter of immigrants, Lorena Carrillo always looked up to her parents—admiring their work ethic and striving to make them proud in everything she did. But she didn’t know exactly what it was she wanted to do. Today she is a senior project engineer at...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29—In a few weeks, nearly 200 of the nation’s best construction professionals in trades such as carpentry, electrical, HVAC, millwright, plumbing and welding are set to compete at the premier skilled trades contest in Las Vegas on Feb. 26 at Associated Builders a...

The two-year-old Dirt World Summit, started in 2023 by BuildWitt and sponsored by Ariat, is taking the construction workforce by storm in all the best ways. Debuting with an attendance of 750 registrants—including exhibitors, speakers and audience members—Dirt World nearly double...

As parents to a 13-year-old autistic son, Jason San Souci (late-diagnosed autistic) and his wife, Nicole Corder, have been actively involved in the neurodiverse community for years. As their son, Blake, entered his teen years, the pair started thinking about his future career opp...

According to recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics findings, over 2.5 million construction workers are over the age of 55. Associated Builders and Contractors reports that one in five workers will exit the industry in the next few years. With that projected loss of industry expe...

"We’ve got to turn this into a T.V. show.” That is what John Montgomery, co-executive director of the Skilled Careers Coalition, said when he attended SkillsUSA, a national skilled-trades competition for teens, in 2021. But well before television, the first federal law in the Uni...

Growing up in North Carolina, Grace Novak always knew she was a builder. Fascinated by Lego toys in her childhood, enthralled with set design and build for her high school’s theater department and captivated by the machine shop at Duke University—where she earned a degree in mech...