Every summer, we look forward to hosting college interns from Construction Industry and Workforce Initiative (CIWI) and this year was no exception. Seven bright interns and their program lead, Monte, joined us in Oakland for a deep dive into charter school facility development. 

We kicked things off at our charter school partner, Lighthouse Community Public Schools, where the interns toured an active site and learned how even small-scale projects can play a big role in shaping a learning environment. Our scope included adding a modular that houses a classroom and two offices—an expansion to the modular classroom we added last year. Additionally, the school is working with the contractors and architects on reinforcing existing trusses while they are on site. A huge thank you to Thomas Kodur from Bjork Construction and Ivan Fernando from LCA Architects for joining us to explain the construction and design work on-site. 

Next up: Education for Change’s Cox Academy, where the conversation turned to the complexities of building on a shared, occupied campus. The site, also home to OUSD’s Reach Academy, will undergo phased construction—a strategic approach to minimize disruption while maximizing impact. Interns got to see how plans are implemented in real-time and heard firsthand about the trade-offs, challenges, and creative problem-solving involved in these types of projects. 

We love that the questions from this group are always sharp and thoughtful. One of the interns even had a personal connection to the charter world, having attended Yu Ming Charter School, another charter school partner of ours! 

CIWI is doing incredible work to build a more diverse, inclusive pipeline into the built environment fields. We’re proud to be part of their summer experience and to help open doors to careers that create lasting impact.