Javier

“That’s what construction is — collaboration.”

By Students of NYC

December 17^th, 2024

"When I was 7 years old, I moved to New York City with my mom. The urban ecosystems that are here compared to the suburb and rural areas of the Dominican Republic, it was something to adjust to. The trains, the buses, the buildings. But I'm a curious person by nature. Most of my life I’ve wanted to learn how things happen. I was so intrigued by these massive concrete buildings — just the functionality of them.

I don’t know if I was 10 or 11, but I was with my cousins one year from the Dominican Republic and it was their first time coming here. We went to Times Square and had so much fun. We had McDonald's and then we went into the Grand Central station. I was sitting there looking and thinking, how do you support such a big building under this massive gap? How do you create the beams to be fortified enough and down deep enough to make sure that they don’t get in the path of the trains and still support that building? I’d walk through the city and think about questions like, how do you optimize the fluidity of the streets? Or the access in exits or egresses out of the buildings? When you go a little further downtown, you see so much movement. How do you manage that movement of millions of people every day? The transit system: How do you make sure that everyone has a fluid path to their next station, or the concurrency of the trains?

When I was an underclassman here, I noticed certain older kids that seemed like they had it all figured out. My curiosity made me go up to them and ask them, 'How did you do it? How did you do all these great things and take advantage all of these opportunities, what did that look like?' They said they had fun with friends, but they made sure to do extracurriculars, too. They joined clubs, or started them. I was like okay, I have an interest. My interest is construction. I like talking about it, I’m inspired to learn about it and bring that knowledge to others. I had gotten into the ACE mentors program sophomore year. It stands for architecture, construction and engineering. The professionals in engineering, construction management firms come and mentor you. The program was so cool. I was like, I really wanted to share what I’m learning with other people. This information is great. So my summer of sophomore year, I started planning to start an ACE club in my school. I needed to make sure I pre-planned it, because I don’t like when things are hectic. So I took weeks during summer to plan all the lessons, create all the field trip ideas. I wanted to take them to the Skyscraper Museum, the Brooklyn bridge, the Intrepid, all those places. Because people learn by seeing, you know?

In September, I was ready. At the college and club fair, I kept going up to people and trying to get them to join. People were intrigued, I could see. But I also saw how scared they were. There’s something about when you hear the word 'engineering' you’re like, ‘Oh this sounds complicated. This sounds like something I like, but something I won't be able to learn easily.' But I just kept telling them, 'This is going to be great. There’s going to be all this knowledge. Just sign up.' And they did. The first session, there were about 25 people. I did a baseline assessment. I gave them popsicle sticks, glue, string, straws, all these materials, and told them their task was to create a building that is structurally sound. But I wasn’t necessarily looking for what they created. I was looking for how they collaborated. That’s what construction is — collaboration. On any project, you need to collaborate and communicate so that you don’t just finish but create something that's high quality. I wanted to see how they worked together and who they worked best with and if there were any conflicts and how they resolved them to create a positive result.

As a teacher, or any leader really, you need to let others lead. Sometimes, you want to do things in this rigid way to fit an agenda. But the thing is, when you’re learning, it’s not like a linear path, but a curved one. Some people learn faster. Some people need time and more attention. So I always give the club members freedom of expressing themselves so I can really understand what they like and how they want to do it, and then I support whatever their idea is instead of deterring it just because it might be flawed in a conceptual way. And sometimes, they might be going through a lot. So when they come to the club, it’s not just about doing what the club wants you to do, but about how are you doing? It’s okay, you don’t have to work today. You can sit on the side and just look. People have interest, but you have to meet people at their timing, or their interest can die.

I always think back to what my 6th grade teacher, Mr. Carpio, taught me. He really taught me not just to stick with it but to make sure everyone gets a part of it. It’s not just about knowing the content, the material, it’s about the sharing. To have something so valuable, like knowledge, and not want to share it, it’s almost selfish. When I see kids in the hall now talking about the club, or engineering, or construction and building things, I think it's so amazing. Watching it spread. Helping people build their own path in the way they want — that's important. A lot of people have knowledge, but not necessarily the passion to share. People don’t realize that whatever you need, any support, guidance, it’s there. It’s actually abundant. But you have to look for it. You have to seek it out. You have to ask."