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The House That Patriots Built
Students Reinforce Learning,Help Family in Need
Rosie Mastrolia is forever grateful to The
University of Texas at Tyler.
But it’s not for a quality education or a great
job opportunity. She is thankful to the
students and faculty of UT Tyler for
building a safe home for her 3-year-old son.
Last fall, students in the College of Business
and Technology’s Department of
Construction Management partnered with
Habitat for Humanity of Smith County for
a service learning project. Habitat is an
international non-profit organization that
works to provide affordable homes to
low -income families. Ingersoll Rand,
formerly Trane, provided funding for the
project and UT Tyler provided the labor.
During the semester, construction management
students organized work teams from
campus, planned work schedules, calculated
material needs and worked many hours to
complete the first Habitat solely implemented
and constructed by UT Tyler volunteers.
Ms. Mastrolia and her son were the
recipients of the new home.
“It feels like I have stability . . . like I have
no worries,” the single mom said. “Before,
we were living in a little one-bedroom, one-bath
house. Now the space is probably
double what we were living in before. And
my mortgage payment is a lot less than the
rent I was paying.”
But most importantly, Ms. Mastrolia said
she has a safe place to raise her son. “Where
we lived before was not safe. It wasn’t really
somewhere you wanted to be at night.
Now the neighborhood is so quiet and the
area is safe.”
Junior Tim Ballard, a construction management
student who worked on the home,
said, “We got to help a family in need and
it gave us a good opportunity to experience
a real world job.”
Sophomore Jerilyn Davis said working to
provide a home for this family was not only
rewarding, but also very educational. “This
is a hands-on way to understand what we
do in the classes,” the construction management
major said. “We are learning about
estimating, scheduling, foundation, structure.
Everything (at the Habitat home) goes
hand in hand with what we are learning.”
Dr. John Martin, professor of construction
management, said service learning, or tying
a service project to curriculum, is an
effective way of reinforcing classroom
instruction and preparing students for
actual job scenarios.
“I’ve always felt like tying the students back
to the real world is so important in
construction because it’s something you can’t
memorize. You can’t memorize your way out
of this business,” he said. “While these
students won’t actually be doing (craft labor)
for a living, it is nice to get their hands dirty
and see how it is done. This experience will
make it easier to manage crews.”
The construction management program,
launched in fall 2007 at UT Tyler, prepares
graduates for a professional career of leadership
in construction industries. Students
learn how to manage and oversee the
construction process on all levels from start
to finish.
Universitywide Effort
 The Habitat team included 32 construction
management students from three
different classes. “But while the house was
a project for the construction management
students, many students, staff and faculty
members worked on the house—the baseball
team, girls basketball team. We’ve
made this a universitywide project,” Dr.
Martin said. “Our students have comprised
the workers and the management. It’s a big
effort and challenging.”
UT Tyler senior Thomas Browning was
coordinator of staffing for the project. “A
lot of student groups and organizations
wanted to do community service. I helped
facilitate the volunteers and did a lot of
scheduling for groups on the weekends.”
Browning and his peers recruited volunteers
by hosting on-campus barbecues, through
newspaper ads and via emails and web
information.
Timothy Wilson, a construction management
junior, said students did everything
from raising the walls to framing, roofing,
siding, painting and more. “It helped things
click for a lot of people.”
The construction management team worked
during class time each week throughout
the fall and often on Saturdays as well.
Students handed over the completed home
to Ms. Mastrolia in December.
Diane Hubbard, project manager for
Habitat of Humanity, said the construction
of the UT Tyler house went a little
faster than a normal project “because there
were more people working on it and
because as construction students, they have
an idea of what needs to be done.”
Ms. Hubbard said, “I believe it is important
for the students to know how to build a
home before they can manage other people
who are building.”
Jack Wilson, president and chief operations
officer for Habitat for Humanity of Smith
County, said the students worked hard on
the home and he hopes Habitat has a
continuing relationship with the UT Tyler
construction management program and
other volunteer groups.
“Working on a home opens your eyes to the
substandard living conditions where some
people live. You are working side by side
with the family on the home. And it gives
you a sense of accomplishment, that you are
doing something good with your time.”
More Projects to Come
Dr. Martin said service learning projects will
continue to be part of the construction
management program. He said the department
plans to involve students in at least
one big community project per semester as
well as campus projects. For example, they
hope to build a chimney-style barbecue by
Harvey Lake for use by other student groups.
“And we are in the planning stages of
traveling to Yellowstone National Park in
the summer to work on park building
projects,” Dr. Martin said. “We have even
discussed going to Galveston to help
rebuild in disaster areas.
“We are trying to build a culture that
creates leadership, professionalism and
autonomy,’’ the professor said. “We are
also trying to build philanthropic character
in these students. We want them to be
professionals who give back to the community.
I hope they’ll volunteer to help
community service organizations wherever
they go with their expertise.”
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