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Congratulations to Alayna Trautman, Recipient of the 2023 Ferguson WiMI Scholarship

Alayna Trautman is studying construction management at Alfred State College and is one of two recipients of the Ferguson – Women in the Mechanical Industry Scholarship. Ferguson underwrites these scholarships which recognize high-achieving female students working towards a degree relative to the mechanical industry.

Alayna has been an active member of her student chapter by serving as both Secretary and Vice President. Next year, Alayna will take on the role of Student Chapter President. She has been interning with MCAA Member, D.V. Brown and Associates since 2021 and will continue on with her internship this summer as a Jr. Project Manager.

“Five years after graduation I see myself as a successful project manager with a mechanical contracting company. I’d like to work on multiple capital improvement projects and provide mentorship to young female students the way I was mentored. I will also continue to be an active member of the local, state and national MCAA chapters to show my commitment to the association that assisted in my growth by sponsoring scholarships to college students.

The mechanical side of construction is something that intrigues me on how all intricate details and facets come together. Watching a project go from nothing to final completion is amazing to me. The way project managers collaborate to ensure timelines are met and cooperatively work with other contractors is true partnership.

For the past two years I have had the opportunity to intern with D.V. Brown and Associates during the summer and college breaks. This experience has reinforced that I was making the right choice.”

MCAA and the John R. Gentille Foundation congratulate Alayna on this prestigious scholarship and thank Ferguson for their commitment to supporting students interested in pursuing a career in the mechanical contracting industry.

Congratulations to Jakob Balgemann, Recipient of the 2023 DEWALT Patriot Scholarship

The DEWALT Patriot Scholarship, now in its second year, was created to recognize two veterans, or those who are currently serving in the United States Military, who have valiantly served their country and have chosen to enter a career in the construction industry. Thank you to DEWALT for honoring our military and to our scholarship recipients for their service to our country. These two special scholarships were presented at the MCAA Awards of Excellence Breakfast in Phoenix on March 29th by Jake Sullivan (U.S. Marine Corp Veteran) and Jon Howland (U.S. Navy Veteran).

Jakob Balgemann served in the United States Marine Corps from 2016 – 2020 where he maintained and operated approximately 20 variations of radio networks across multiple platforms of equipment. He supervised and led teams across multiple deployments for the purpose or rapid response force for embassy reinforcement training and was awarded meritorious promotion for performance during 2 deployments.

Jakob will be graduating in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Science in Construction Engineering from Iowa State University.

“I selected the word Perseverant to describe myself because this describes me as a person, as well as how I choose to live my life. Throughout my childhood and young adult life, I was fortunate to have excellent role models that demonstrated this trait to me and this was reinforced and built upon my life throughout my time in the Marine Corps.

Working for a Mechanical Contractor would appeal to me because of the challenges that are presented as well as always working in an environment that is changing and evolving. Whether it be technology or challenging circumstances to accomplish a task, this draws my attention because of the satisfaction of figuring out a way to accomplish a task and executing the plan in order to make things work correctly.”

MCAA and the John R. Gentille Foundation congratulate Jakob on this prestigious scholarship and thank DEWALT for their commitment to supporting students interested in pursuing a career in the mechanical contracting industry, as well as for recognizing the courageous service of our country’s Veterans.

School’s Out for Summer!

Classes are officially finished for the year and student chapter members are on the hunt for new opportunities. Now is an excellent time to post your Fall ’24 internships (or to catch a few stragglers still for summer employment).

How to Post an Entry-Level Job or Internship

Login with an MCAA username and password
Click on the job board within the Career Development page
Click Manage My Jobs and Add a Job to create your posting
Jobs remain active for 1 month to ensure postings stay fresh
When the job is set to expire, a reminder will be sent for you to either “mark as filled” or “duplicate” and repost for another month
Interested students can view postings and submit their contact information and resume
Your office will be notified via email when interested students submit their resume
From there, your office is encouraged to continue with your company’s application and interview process

VIEW JOB BOARD

Tell Us About Your MCAA23 Intern & New Hire Successes

Did you successfully hire an intern or full-time new hire in 2023? We’d love to hear about it! Reach out to MCAA’s Michele Hoffman at mhoffman@mcaa.org.

Congratulations to Macy Deck, Recipient of the 2023 Foster McCarl, Jr. Memorial Scholarship

Macy Deck, a May 2023 graduate who studied Mechanical Engineering at Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville, was awarded the Foster McCarl, Jr. Memorial Scholarship at MCAA23 this past March during the Awards of Excellence Breakfast. This national scholarship honors Foster McCarl, Jr.’s many contributions to advancing the mechanical contracting industry, including his efforts towards establishing what is now known as the John R. Gentille Foundation (JRGF). McCarl’s Inc. is the scholarship sponsor.

Macy co-founded her student chapter, which was officially chartered during the Phoenix convention. Macy previously interned at MCAA Member, Icon Mechanical and their sister company, iENG Design and is excited to start her career there full-time this summer.

“There are so many exciting changes with technology and in the structure of the construction industry that I’m thrilled to be a part of. During my summer internship, a project was assigned to all the interns called the Intern Innovation Project. The purpose of the project was for each intern to find an inconvenience in the company that could be improved upon and then to present it to a panel of judges. At first, I had trouble coming up with ideas and a mentor suggested that I try to standardize certain methods of HVAC designing. Standardizing required gathering senior mechanical engineers to agree on what should be done. At the end of my internship, I was shocked to find out that I had won the Intern Innovation Project award.

My project brought together employees with unique and vast experiences to decide on a common ground. Through this experience, I realized that my strength is promoting collaboration. Construction projects succeed only when people communicate and collaborate effectively to build a building.”

MCAA and the John R. Gentille Foundation congratulate Macy on this prestigious scholarship and thank McCarl’s Inc. for their commitment to supporting students interested in pursuing a career in the mechanical contracting industry.

Congratulations to Mesa Kelly, Recipient of the 2023 Alan P. O’Shea Memorial Scholarship

Marissa (Mesa) Kelly, one of the two recipients of the Alan P. O’Shea Memorial Scholarship. The Mechanical Contractors Association of New Jersey established these scholarships to honor the memory of Alan P. O’Shea, it’s former Executive Director, and to memorialize his many contributions to the mechanical contracting industry. The scholarships were presented by Richard Tomaiko (MCA of New Jersey President) and Phillip Petillo (MCA of New Jersey Executive Director).

Mesa is the Recruitment Chair for her student chapter at the University of Nebraska (Omaha campus) and will be graduating from their five-year program with a Master’s in Architectural Engineering in May 2026. She’s currently interning with MCAA Member, Grunwald Mechanical Contractors & Engineers in Omaha, NE.

“I really like the atmosphere at my company and the work that I’m doing. I love that I’m doing actual work and not just typical intern work. I have always known that I wanted to be an engineer, but that sounded kind of boring to me, but then I found Architectural Engineering and I instantly knew this was the degree for me. I joined the MCAA student chapter because I knew I wanted to go into the mechanical emphasis and that the student chapter provides unique opportunities that I would not get with other student groups.”

MCAA and the John R. Gentille Foundation congratulate Mesa on this prestigious scholarship and thank the MCA of New Jersey for their commitment to supporting students interested in pursuing a career in the mechanical contracting industry.

Congratulations to Joani Lico, Recipient of the 2023 Trimble Future Estimator Scholarship

The Trimble Future Estimator Scholarship was developed to recognize a student not only interested in mechanical contracting, but specifically for a student with an interest in being a mechanical estimator upon graduation.

For the past few years Trimble has donated complimentary use of the Trimble Estimation MEP software for our student chapter competition teams. Likewise, this new scholarship was awarded to a student chapter competition Final Four team member and future estimator, Joani Lico.

Joani is the President of his student chapter at Fairleigh Dickinson University and will be graduating in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering Technology. Previously, Joani interned with MCAA Member, Industrial Cooling Corporation (Metuchen, NJ) where he assisted the senior estimator in calculating labor hours, created proposals, and performed take-off bids for mechanical projects ranging from $50,000 – $2,000,000.

“Looking to the future, I hope to work as a Project Manager / Estimator for a mechanical contractor. The more involved I get with MCAA, the more confident I am in joining the business and becoming a valuable asset to whichever company I work for. I led the estimating group for the MCAA Competition Team at Fairleigh Dickinson University for the past three years. Trimble showed me how fascinating and diverse the estimating profession is. I plan to continue this road further in the future and I will build on the experience I gained during my time as a student member in MCAA.”

MCAA and the John R. Gentille Foundation congratulate Joani on this prestigious scholarship and thank Trimble for their commitment to supporting students interested in pursuing a career in the mechanical contracting industry.

Winning Team, Pittsburg State University, Visits the Site Used for the 2022-2023 Student Competition

The 2022-2023 MCAA Student Chapter Competition 1^st Place Team, Pittsburg State University, was invited to Denver, CO on April 21st to view the real-life completed site for their proposal of the National Western Center, which included a meeting with Lynn Mueller, CEO of SHARC Energy.

Leslie Fangman, VP of Corporate Development at Centrio, led the group through a tour of the district energy facility that features the largest SHARC system in North America. The students learned about the inception of the project, the predevelopment process, the construction and the operation of the facility.

Andy Wright (Senior Project Manager), Taylor Heideman (Project Manager), Kevin Stoddard (Director of Preconstruction), Sarabeth Gandara (Preconstruction Manager) and John Marlow (VP of Project Development) from US Engineering also joined on the tour to meet the chapter and answer questions from the mechanical contractor’s perspective on the project.

After the tour of the energy facility, the students quickly toured a couple of additional buildings on the National Western Campus and then headed off to the US Engineering office for a tour, “101 course” of the officer air handling unit, and lunch.

On Friday afternoon, US Engineering attendees joined the students for a few rounds of TopGolf and networking. Attendees from US Engineering included: John Marlow (VP of Project Development), Whitney Bell-Haggard (VP of Strategy), Kevin Stoddard (Director of Preconstruction), Sarabeth Gandara (Preconstruction Manager), Josh Martinez (Preconstruction Manager), Brandon Richardt (Preconstruction Engineer) and Lupe Garza (Project Manager). Leslie Fangman with Centrio also attended.

Thank you to US Engineering, Centrio and SHARC Energy for this incredible invitation and experience for our championship team!

Congratulations to Veronica Brems, Recipient of the 2023 William A. Bianco, Jr. Memorial Scholarship

Veronica Brems is this year’s recipient of the annual William A. Bianco, Jr. Memorial Scholarship. MCAA member, Kinetics, established this scholarship to honor William “Bill” Bianco (the foundation’s former President and an MCAA Distinguished Service Award recipient) for his many contributions to the industry’s continuing advancement.

Veronica is the President of her local student chapter at Purdue University and will be graduating in May 2025 with a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management. Last summer, Veronica interned with Auburn Mechanical in Auburn, WA where she aided in writing, reviewing and logging RFI’s and submittals, engaged in weekly site walks with members of the safety teams, field superintendents, project managers and executive team, and communicated with venders, plus wrote purchase orders for equipment.

“Working for a mechanical contractor is appealing to me because it is what makes the building come to life. There is no way for a building to function without the systems that circulate the air, provide heating and cooling, plumbing, fire sprinklers, etc. Five years after graduation, I see myself working for a mechanical contractor as a Project Manager leading a team of individuals to create something special for the clients.”

MCAA and the John R. Gentille Foundation congratulate Veronica on this prestigious scholarship and thank Kinetics for their commitment to supporting students interested in pursuing a career in the mechanical contracting industry.

Semester Break Creates Employment Golden Opportunity on MCAA’s GreatFutures Job Board

College students across the country are finishing up finals and heading home for winter break. Following a few days of post-finals rest, their #1 priority will be to secure a summer internship or full-time position. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to put your company in the spotlight during the golden weeks between semesters! Post your entry level, full-time job or internship today and ring in the new year to successfully growing your workforce.

How it works:

Login with an MCAA username and password
Click on the job board within the Career Development page
Click Manage My Jobs and Add a Job to create your posting
Jobs remain active for 1 month to ensure postings stay fresh
When the job is set to expire, a reminder will be sent for you to either “mark as filled” or “duplicate” and repost for another month
Interested students can view postings and submit their contact information and resume
Your office will be notified via email when interested students submit their resume
From there, your office is encouraged to continue with your company’s application and interview process

VIEW JOB BOARD

MCAA’s Job Board Delivers Results

A student from Ball State University was recently hired by U.S. Engineering after using the new GreatFutures job board to find a summer internship. Congratulations to Reece Manning and U.S. Engineering! Read the article.

There’s Still Time to Apply for an Internship Grant!

If you already employed an intern in 2022, remember to submit an application for an Internship Grant. MCAA members may submit up to two applications per year for a $1,000 grant (to your company) and an accompanying $500 gift card (to the intern).

APPLY FOR AN INTERNSHIP GRANT

New Study Compares Contractor Usage of Best and Worst Language in Contract Clauses

The John R. Gentille Foundation (JRGF) has partnered with ELECTRI International (NECA) and the New Horizons Foundation (SMACNA) to assess and produce a detailed report on construction contracting best practices. Our collaboration is meant to provide industry-wide data that supports our members’ contract negotiations and guidance on better contract language to reduce liability. With better practices in place, risk can be shifted away from trade contractors to the appropriate party, leading to a more profitable industry overall.

First, Document Crunch identified the criteria used to analyze where the provisions at issue were considered Best Practice, Medium Practice, or Deficient Practice. Once those parameters were established, the Document Crunch proprietary platform extracted specific terms from each of the contracts to determine the frequency of each practice. After analyzing the data, Document Crunch has identified the 10 riskiest contract provisions that impact trade contractors.

Download a free copy of the research results below, which includes a description of each provision at issue, the criteria used to identify each issue, and the frequency of occurrence across the sample data.

The John R. Gentille Foundation underwrites the development of practices, tools, methods and materials to advance the mechanical and service trades.

DOWNLOAD FREE COPY