Written by Magen Schlesier, ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Arkansas CLC Student Chapter Committee Chair
From the ashes, the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Student Chapter at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has recently erupted after a half-decade long hiatus. Once a burning hot, nationally award-winning chapter with an abundance of members, the flame of the chapter flickered out upon the graduation of the last member standing in 2017. Attempts were made to revive the chapter over the years to no avail. Five years later, conditions became more favorable. Crucial elements materialized all at once; a perfect storm. With a national interest in student chapter engagement, an energetic and passionate CLC group and ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Arkansas support, the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app CLC Student Chapter Committee was born. Hard work by dedicated students and ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Arkansas CLC members brought the Student Chapter at UA Little Rock BACK, baby, and it is here to stay!
The Student Chapter Committee, led by ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Arkansas' Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Jen Adams, and former student chapter officer, Magen Schlesier of Lexicon Inc, with the help of Committee members Harrison Wilson of Kinco, and Jason May of Darragh, was able to spark interest among students and recruit enough members to start an official student chapter in the Fall of 2022. Student officers Dustin Welch (President), David Mendoza (Vice President), Andrea Vargas (Treasurer) and Taylor Carter (Secretary) were on fire! The chapter attended numerous ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Arkansas, ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app CLC and UALR Recruiting events over the course of the next semester, including the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Annual Baggo Tournament, the UALR CSTEM Student Organization Fair, the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Annual Clay Shoot and UALR's First Annual Nerd Night. By September, they were hosting their first Mixer event with the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app CLC. Little did these officers know, there would be obstacles ahead.
The flame flickers. Civil & Construction Engineering and Architectural Engineering degree requirements, class workloads, full-time jobs and personal obligations, combined, delivered a hard blow to our fledgling student chapter during the Spring Semester of 2023. With all four officers being seniors in similar engineering programs, the workload was too much to go around. Some of the officers were able to attend as volunteers to the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Annual Associates' Derby, but they were running low on fuel as they inched toward the finish line. Something had to give.
Enter Jill Cates. Jill was a third year Construction Management student who waltzed into the department Chair's office one fateful morning in February 2023, energetic and driven, seeking a cause. Her attention was immediately directed to the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Student Chapter, and Jill swiftly came to the rescue, fanning the flames and tending the fire. With Jill's leadership and the help of three of the remaining original officers and Faculty Advisor, Stuart Scheiderer, they were able to gain enough new members to hold a Spring election and complete paperwork to officially register as a University Student Organization. The four officers drafted a sponsorship invitation letter, found contact information for over 55 local contractors and subcontractors, split them up evenly and sent personalized letters to each of them. Their efforts paid off, ultimately raising an initial $2,300 in sponsorships between start-up sponsors, Bailey Construction, Forsgren Inc., McGeorge Contracting Co. Inc., and Clark Contractors, enabling the undoubtedly humbled and grateful Student Chapter Officers to double down on recruitment efforts to solidify their base membership.
Newly elected officers, Jill Cates (President), Matthew Eustace (Vice President), Hunter Cameron (Secretary) and Justin Wessels (Treasurer), ramped things up in 2023! They organized volunteers for the CoHo House Tiny Homes project for low income and homeless people, attended multiple recruiting events at the University, held a second Student Chapter and CLC mixer, this time complete with free professional headshots for attendees, attended and volunteered for the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Annual Meeting and Casino Night, the next Annual Clay shoot, multiple Happy Hours, and Trivia Night. Jill even traveled to Northeast Arkansas to speak with the Chapter Liaison and Faculty Advisor for a seedling chapter at another University!
Hungry for more, the student chapter had their minds set on a food competition to kick off the Spring semester of 2024. After a few brainstorming sessions and calendar coordination, they decided on a Taste of Mardi Gras Festival. This would be the very first, large-scale, off-campus industry event that any of the construction-related student chapters at the University had hosted in recorded history. The officers quickly assembled an event planning committee, and painstakingly planned every detail of the event from tip to toe. The event was presented as a *small-scale* event with local contractors and subcontractors coming to cook their favorite southern/Cajun/creole foods, having some beer and mixing and mingling with students. There would be live music, baggo boards, king cakes and a King or Queen of Mardi Gras crowned based on whomever found the plastic baby hidden among the cakes, a photo booth with props, a costume contest, a raffle drawing with three donated prizes by local contractors, and prizes for best dish and best cocktail. Riggs CAT very graciously offered their massive Timberlands Lab, connected classroom and parking lot, as the venue for the event at no cost to the student chapter, and assisted in acceptance of deliveries, set up and break down. With the help of ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Arkansas' Jen Adams’ marketing genius, Save the Date fliers and Registration were designed and sent out to all of ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Arkansas membership, two months and one month prior, respectively.
For a singular moment, the balance hung in the air as the student chapter members nervously awaited responses and purposefully dampened their expectations for turn-out, as it was their first major event. They said to themselves that if they could only just attract enough teams to break even, they would consider the event a success. Almost immediately, that suspended moment of anticipation burst as emails began pouring in. Excitement about the event buzzed about the construction community. No one had ever done anything like this before, and EVERYONE wanted to be a part of it! Tales of folks' "grandma's secret gumbo recipes" and costume and decor ideas began to permeate the hallways and offices of industry partners. Team after team signed up to compete for Best Dish and Best Cocktail trophies. Individual attendees' registration forms flooded the student's inboxes, and sponsorships were offered in abundance. To paraphrase a currently popular artist, our student chapter's event would "be a match," while the industry would "be a fuse. BOOM!"
The Taste of Mardi Gras Festival went off without a hitch. The weather was perfect, the food was amazing, live music by the Kordsmeiers was a hit, the drinks were flowing, costumes were in abundance, and spirits were high. Sixteen teams and 144 people registered to attend. Fourteen companies chose to sponsor the event or donate raffle prizes, including Alessi Keyes, Clark Contractors, Darragh, Forsgren Inc., Granite Mountain Quarry, Hugg & Hall, KAJACS Contractors, Inc., Kinco, Koontz Electric, McGeorge Contracting, Nabholz, Riggs CAT, Staley Electric, and Weaver-Bailey Contractors, Inc. Other supporters included Time Striping, Inc., CDI Contractors, The Cashion Company, ACE Glass, NBMC, Inc., ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app of Arkansas, ICM Technologies, Lexicon, Inc., Baldwin & Shell, and NAWIC Greater Little Rock Chapter. Twenty-eight student volunteers ran the whole show. The event raised $8,250 in gross revenue and cost $3,500, leaving the student chapter with $4,750 in net revenue. The money will be used to send qualifying student officers and/or members to future ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app CLC Leadership Development Conferences, or to the annual ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app National Conference.
Photos and videos were still peppering social media feeds over a week later. Student chapter members and officers received multiple job offers, and the student chapter had generated a renewed interest among fellow students on campus. Plans for the next Annual Taste of Mardi Gras Festival were already in motion, Riggs Cat offered their location again for next year's venue, and the student chapter held a recap meeting to discuss successes, failures and potential improvements for future planning purposes.
Spring elections were abuzz with students clamoring for esteemed positions of leadership that were being vacated by our four graduating officers. After the dust settled, Cheyenne Smock (President), Jacob Cordell (Vice President), Eric Reyes (Treasurer) and Harrison Hestir (Secretary), emerged victorious as our officers for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Our immediate past officers moved on to join their predecessors in lucrative careers with almost all ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Arkansas’ members, with many of them expressing interest in becoming CLC members.
With a growing membership, two strong years post-resurrection under their belt, spring election for the 2024-2025 fiscal year wrapped, great potential from our newest elected student officers, support from ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Arkansas and its members, and a great impression left upon the industry after the Taste of Mardi Gras event, the student chapter has much to look forward to. They have plans to continue recruiting on campus, attending and volunteering at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Arkansas and ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app CLC events and meetings, coordinating and communicating with their ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app CLC Student Chapter Liaison and Student Chapter Committee Chair, and holding membership and officer meetings. With means to send students to ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app and ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app CLC Conferences now, the chapter plans to create a list of qualification requirements and a selection process for the students that will be chosen to utilize this benefit, and present these before their ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app CLC Student Chapter Committee for feedback and final approval. The success of the Taste of Mardi Gras event solidified the opportunity for the Student Chapter to earn future revenue to devote to continued development of their leadership. Once a chapter ablaze, then reduced to ashes, the ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½app Student Chapter at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has returned to its former glory, burning hotter now than ever!