The Viega scholarship, now in its second year, was awarded to Griffin Souder. Scholarship requirements specify this award be presented to a student who is an active participant of an MCAA student chapter, who is a junior or senior, majoring in a construction program, with a 3.5 GPA or higher, who participated in MCAA’s Student Chapter Competition, and most importantly, who is committed to a career in mechanical contracting, demonstrated through a current or upcoming summer internship. Griffin checked all the boxes and was awarded a $5,000 check at MCAA24 in Orlando during the Awards of Excellence Breakfast.
Griffin is a Construction Engineering major at Pittsburg State University with an anticipated graduation of May 2025. He served as student chapter secretary and is currently interning at P1 Construction, LLC.
“The experience I have gained the most from being part of my MCAA student chapter is just creating all the relationships and meeting people in the mechanical industry. I really do enjoy creating relationships because someday, you might be working with them on a project and you already have an established relationship to build off. When our student chapter went to Milwaukee for the MCAA GreatFutures Forum, I had a blast meeting all of the other schools in MCAA, as well as all of the companies that took time to come to GreatFutures. It felt nice to feel part of an organization and feel involved, not just going to classes and going home every day.
After becoming part of Pittsburg State’s MCAA student chapter, I have really grown interested in the mechanical industry. With some help from our advisor and some additional help from MCAKC [the MCA of Kansas City], I was able to have interview with P1 Construction. I hope my summer internship with P1 goes well because I really want to pursue a career in mechanical construction. This summer will be my first internship with a mechanical contractor and I’m really looking forward to this summer to get in there and start learning everything I can.”
MCAA and the John R. Gentille Foundation congratulate Griffin on this prestigious scholarship and thank Viega for their commitment to supporting students interested in pursuing a career in the mechanical contracting industry.
