Career center students get hands-on experience at Habitat house
Coshocton County Career Center Construction Technology students are pictured working on Habitat for Humanity’s new house on North 15th Street in Coshocton. Josie Sellers | Beacon
COSHOCTON – The Coshocton County Career Center Construction Technology students are gaining hands-on experience while helping a family in the community, thanks to a partnership with Habitat for Humanity.
“This is a really good experience for us to get to get out and work with our hands,” said Dakota Markley, a junior in Brad Sarchet’s construction technology class at the career center.
Markley and his classmates have been working on Habitat’s newest house on North 15th Street.
“We’ve been working on the walls and framing,” Markley said. “I’ve never done it before but Sarchet has done a good job of teaching us. It feels good too knowing we are doing this for Habitat.”
This is the 17th house in the county that has been built by Habitat for Humanity volunteers and students from the career center have worked on the majority of them.
“They started with us at the beginning of the build and will be with us for the entire year,” said Brittleigh Unger, executive director of Habitat for Humanity. “It will be really cool for them to be able to see the house from start to finish.”
Sarchet said he will have his students do as much as they can on the house including getting it ready for wiring and plumbing.
“The kids are so excited to be here,” Sarchet said. “I’ve had parents tell me at conferences that they don’t have to pry their kids out of bed in the morning because they want to come here. They are picking up their phones and taking pictures because they want to show people what they’ve done. You can’t replace the valuable hands-on experience they are getting here. It’s not just job experience either. They also will get the opportunity to rub elbows with other contractors.”
Unger definitely appreciates the students helping with construction.
“We love having the kids out there,” she said. “They are excited and have good attitudes. We hope to partner with them for years to come.”
The partner family for the house the students are working on is Janell Titus and her two children. According to Unger, they should be able to move in to their new home by early summer at the latest.
“It feels pretty good to know we will be able to see this house and the people living there and know we helped give them a place to live,” said Silas Bassett, a senior in the construction technology class at the career center.
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