SCA scholarships can lead to successful careers

Each year, the Springfield Contractors Association provides scholarship money to area students who are going into the construction trades.

"We send out applications to OTC, Hammons School of Architecture, and SMSU," said Kathy Baer, SCA's em-ployment director.

The SCA awards the scholarships to students who plan to work in various as-pects of the construction industry, in-cluding architecture and engineering, said Baer. A committee looks over completed applications and essays, she said, "and they pick about 10 to come in for a personal interview." The committee then selects who will be awarded scholarships and how much each will receive.

The scholarship money available each year is $4,000 and the committee can "give it all to one student or divide it up between as many as they want," Baer said.

The committee looks primarily at grade point average and financial need, Baer said. "They also like to award scholarships to people who plan to stay in the area, although, of course, plans change; so that's not really a requirement."

Many former SCA scholarship recipients are still working and living in the Springfield area. Debi Richardson, Chris Oberhansly and Therese Sorg are three who look back with appreciation on how the scholarships helped them.

Debi Richardson

Scholarship recipient, 1992-93

"I'm one of those late-bloomers," Debi Richardson said. "I came home from my 20th high school reunion and started college."

After completing a two-year construction program in Minnesota, Richardson ended up coming back to her hometown of Springfield. A neighbor told her about the SCA scholarship and a scholarship from Women In Construction. "The National Women In Construction had a local chapter at the time," Richardson said. "I had applied for the national award and received that, and I ended up getting a scholarship from the local chapter too."

The money from the SCA and other scholarships helped her complete her undergraduate degree in Construction Management Technology from South-west Missouri State University with minimal student loans. "If it hadn't been for those scholarships, I would never have gotten anywhere," she said.

After graduating, Richardson went to work in sales for a construction supplier. "I'm not a good salesperson," she said. "But I learned what I didn't want to do." After about a year and a half, she decided to go back to school full-time.

While working toward her master's in resource planning at SMSU, she worked for the city's planning department as part of her graduate program. Now Richard-son is the community development coordinator of SMSU's Center for Resource Planning and Management, and of the Southwest Missouri Council of Govern-ments. (The SMSU Center for Resource Planning and Management is the administrator of the Council of Governments.)

"What I do is still related to construction, but more in the construction management end of it and in government finance," Richardson said. She works with funding agencies such as the De-partment of Natural Resources, USDA Rural Development and the Department of Economic Development. Through the Council of Governments, she deals with community development. "If somebody needs a project, I try to figure out the best way to fund it," she said. "If it's a bond issue I figure out how much the bond issue needs to be, what the community can afford, and how to fill the gap with government financing."

Richardson bids the projects out and works with the engineers, contractors and all phases of construction. She is glad to be doing something with her knowledge of the construction industry, she said. "It's not quite what I thought I'd be doing, but I like it. It's a lot of fun and a lot of hard work."

Chris Oberhansly

Scholarship Recipient, 1994-95 and 1995-96

Chris Oberhansly was an SMSU student pursuing a degree in construction management technology when he learned about the SCA scholarship. He applied and was awarded scholarship money twice, in 1994 and again in 1995. "I had to work to put myself through school," he said, adding that it wasn't easy balancing the amount of time required by his classes and the amount of money he needed to make to pay for them.

The SCA scholarship enabled him to take more classes. "That scholarship helped lighten the burden and make it that much more possible for me to finish school," he said.

In 1995, Oberhansly had just been awarded his second SCA scholarship and was about to begin his final year of school when "Just before the school year began, I was in a work-related accident and was paralyzed."

Although he could not immediately use the scholarship money, it was waiting for him when he was able to return to school. "After the accident, it was real nice to have the money, because at that time working was not a possibility," he said. "Because of all the rehab and slowly getting back into school, it took me two years to finish."

After Oberhansly graduated, he started Access Builders Inc., a construction business primarily focused on doing handicapped-accessible modification work on existing residences and businesses.

"Since then I have also added some people to do roofing work," he said. "We're still doing accessibility work, but now also have the roofing end of the business, called ABI Roofing and Waterproofing." Primarily a commercial and industrial roofing business, ABI specializes in doing metal roof restoration and roof coatings. "There are a lot of roofing companies in the area, but not all of them do that kind of work, so it kind of sets us apart," he said. Starting up his own business has been hard, "but we're still headed in the right direction," Oberhansly said. "We've grown quite a bit in the last two years."

Therese Sorg

Scholarship Recipient, 2000-01

Therese Sorg never planned on getting into the construction business. "My father was a house painter, and two of my brothers were in construction, so I always had an interest in construction," she said. She added, however, that she had never taken formal classes or planned to work in the industry.

Sorg was thinking about pursuing a degree in social work when she joined AmeriCorps in 1998. "I joined Ameri-Corps so I could help people," she said. "I've always wanted to do something that helps people."

During her two years with AmeriCorps she did help people, in large part by doing neighborhood enhancement for lower income neighborhoods. "I was the team leader for a home repair team," she said. "We repaired things in the houses, patched roofs, painted, fixed windows, and built a lot of handicapped-accessible ramps."

It was toward the end of her AmeriCorps time that she decided to go into construction. Everything about it just kind of fit together, she said. "I like working with my hands, and I like being outside," and it was a way she could help people while doing what she enjoyed.

The timing couldn't have been more perfect. Ozarks Technical Community College instructor Jennifer Jackson came to speak with AmeriCorps and said they were starting Project CREW (Construc-tion Readiness Education for Women). Jackson was Project CREW's first director.

It had been almost 20 years since Sorg had been a full-time student. She en-rolled in Project CREW at OTC and began working toward an Associate's of Applied Science degree in Construction Technology. During the six-month, 26-credit-hour Project CREW program, she attended classes with 11 other women and participated in an internship with Habitat for Humanity.

Sorg received the SCA scholarship after completing Project CREW in June 2000. She felt honored to receive the award. "It was really exciting that they picked me, because a lot of people had applied," she said. "It was kind of a booster, that they thought enough of me to give me the scholarship." The money helped pay for her books and other expenses.

As she finished with Project CREW her internship with Habitat for Humanity was also coming to an end, but her involvement with the organization continued. "When my internship was over, Habitat was hiring VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) workers, and I was interested, so I applied," she said.

She was selected for the position and spent a year with Habitat as a VISTA volunteer, finishing in June. During that time she went to school full-time, working during the day and taking classes at night.

Sorg plans to finish her associate's degree within the next year, she said. "I do plan on going back to SMSU, and I want to get my bachelor's of applied science in a field geared toward construction."