My name is Jennifer Lopez-Perez and I’m a Sophomore at Virginia Tech.

Building Construction (BC) is a very good and rewarding major. One of the reasons I applied to BC was becaue of how the course load is greatly focused on certain aspects of construction. As soon as you get into your first year, you take BC courses alongside your general education courses which is a great benefit as you get a jumpstart and an inside look as to what you’re studying for the next four years. Another amazing benefit of BC are the career fairs in the fall and spring that we can attend. Although it can be intimidating at first, it’s a great way to meet new companies and network with people in the industry where you can discuss with them about their experiences in construction.  You can also earn several internship offers as well as full time job offers towards the end of your college journey.

During the summer after my freshman year, I interned with DAVIS Construction, marking my third internship in construction. I recieved the offer as a result of the Construction Industry Career Fair.  It is difficult to choose my most rewarding internship experience because they’ve all been rewarding in their own way. My first internship, I spent most of my time shadowing the project engineers on-site, trying to get exposed as much as possible. My second internship, I was able to begin to learn certain processes such as creating Request for Information (RFI) and Submittals with assistance from the project engineer on sites. During this internship, I’ve been able to fully work on these process by myself and have begun to take on bigger responsibilities. Every internship is meaningful in its own way and you can learn a lot from them. Even if you have not had an internship before, career fairs are a great way to get exposed and get yourself out there. Most BC students get internship offers from them. My advice would be to attend both career fairs and to throw yourself out there as well as absorb as much knowledge as you can in your internships and ask questions!

We hope to see you here in Building Construction and at Virginia Tech!