A Fall Semester 2022 course called Commercial Project Management (also known as the Capstone) is largely a self-guided course for the first half of the semester. It is also a class competition between several teams formed from all sections of the course. Fall 2022 had three sections of the course – one daytime, and two evening sections – forming seven teams, an unusually large enrollment for this class.
Each team was competing to represent the college at a regional meet called the Minnesota Construction Association’s Leadership Training Academy. All teams were given a building type, an actual site, a project construction cost, and various requirements as an RFP.
The project this year was a medical office building in the Highland Bridge development site in Saint Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood and on the site of the former Ford Motor Company Highland Park assembly plant. The working budget students were given was “Under $25 million.” Other particulars: Type II-B construction not to exceed 161,628 GSF including underground parking.
In the school internal competition, student teams were judged by industry reps based on their responses to the RFP deliverables. After a winning Dunwoody team was selected, that team moved on to the second part of the competition, called “The Pursuit.”
Dunwoody’s successful team was self-named “Strategic Builders” and included Yones Abduallahi, Sophia Krocek, Taylor Naumann, Jacob Smith, Langton St Germain, and Carter Weatherman. They were up against six other 4-year schools in our region, presenting their proposal to Ryan Companies and industry judges in a 15-minute presentation time limit.
The Pursuit took place on April 26, 2023, at the Graduate Minneapolis Hotel, near the University of Minnesota campus. Dunwoody’s Strategic Builders delivered a high-level presentation and proposal that brought them the top prize! The students’ dedication and hard work paid dividends with a traveling trophy that will be on display at Dunwoody until next year, when the competition begins anew.
– Nate Swanson