Adam Della Monica, who graduated last year from the course, says because the instructors have day jobs at construction companies or engineering firms, they are able to provide "a real world approach to construction as opposed to a theoretical or book approach."

Now an engineer with Turner Construction in Sacramento, Della Monica says intercollegiate competitions such as the Associated Schools of Construction's Regionals helped prepare him for a career in construction. He says while working on his school's design-build team, he and a couple classmates discovered the importance of BIM.

"We realized BIM was becoming a major thing in the industry so we sat down and learned Revit and other programs and decided to see if we could roll it out in our competition," says Della Monica, who is currently working on a $90-million high school project in Mt. House. He says while studying BIM, he was noticed by Turner and offered an internship and eventually a job.

Meier says to prepare for this year's ASC student competition in Reno, Sacramento State students were assisted by more than 40 local industry professionals who donated time and knowledge. As a design-build coach, he helped his team get ready for a 'real-life' test that required them to study an request for proposal for an actual completed medical office building and then put together their own proposal, with schedule, estimate, site logistics, etc.

"They had 18 hours to do this and in the real industry, it takes weeks," says Meier, who is currently overseeing construction on the $25-million John Muir Health facility in Walnut Creek.

Mark Campbell, who graduated from the course last year, was also noticed by a major company during his CM course. While focusing on public works and infrastructure projects, he caught the eye of Granite Construction and went on to intern for them on the Sacramento Railyards Track Relocation Project, and was recently hired as an engineer to work on the $3.5-billion Tappan Zee bridge project over the Hudson River in New York.

Campbell says one of the most important lessons learned from Sac State's CM program was to be proactive. "Construction is a very dynamic industry that is constantly changing and putting people on their toes, and the CM program taught me to stay ahead of the curve," he says.