TEMPLE, Texas — Twenty students in the construction trades program at Temple High School will tour and judge some of this year’s Parade of Homes entries on April 23. The opportunity comes through the ongoing partnership between the Temple Area Builders Association and the THS career and technical education program.
Students will tour 10 of the 13 homes in this year’s parade representing nine different local homebuilders. These homes are located in various cities in Bell County and vary in price from 150 to 900 thousand dollars. Students will judge the builds on various criteria to determine which home will win the first annual Student’s Choice award.
Stephen Bishop, the construction trades instructor at Temple High School, believes this opportunity will give students a sense of the diversity in the trade.
“I have students who are interested in studying architecture, others who want to go into carpentry and some who already work summers and weekends framing houses,” Bishop said. “By going into a finished product, those different students will likely take note of the aspects of the homes that interest them.”
Seeing these homes will also introduce students to the aesthetic component of homebuilding, according to Bishop. The students who will participate in the tour have mainly focused their learning so far on the structural side of construction.
“The most important thing in this whole process, though, is the ability for these students to network and connect with local employers,” Bishop said.
Denise Ayres, director of CTE for Temple ISD, says that in a partnership with local business and industry leaders, like TABA, the district’s primary role is facilitating opportunities for students to connect with employers and gain real-world experience.
“At the end of the day, it’s the students who will experience meaningful learning through this partnership, and our business partners will in turn benefit from a pipeline of quality local talent,” Ayers said. “We’re simply the matchmakers.”