WCU students plan and build outdoor steps for HOMEBASE
From left, Jim Dean, director of HOMEBASE at Western Carolina, meets at the new stairs with WCU construction management students who helped build them including Trevor Antonson, Brayden Sroka, Will Macdonald, Olivia Craig and Quinton Godfrey.
By Teresa Tate
Western Carolina University construction management students planned and built a set of frame-and-gravel steps into a hillside this fall for HOMEBASE at Western Carolina, a campus ministry serving students who need physical, emotional or spiritual support.
The outdoor stairs replace steps that were in disrepair and provide a vital pathway that links HOMEBASE’s buildings. They also serve students who live nearby and use the path to walk to campus.
“To have a set of steps that is done and done well means a lot for safety and convenience as we go back and forth between our two buildings,” said Jim Dean, director of HOMEBASE at Western Carolina. “It’s been a wonderful partnership with WCU.”
Ten construction management students coordinated details of the construction, from reviewing whether permits were needed to estimating supply costs to coordinating student workdays.
The project was part of a service-learning designated course in the Kimmel School of Construction Management through which WCU students apply the construction management skills they are learning to projects that make a difference in the community.
“The project was really rewarding knowing what the HOMEBASE organization does to help students that I go to school with – people whom I share similar goals and outcomes with,” said Olivia Craig, a student majoring in construction management from Asheville who served as the communications interface for the group. “It’s always a fulfilling experience to contribute to something small that makes a bigger impact.”
