Lowe’s Home Improvement has joined the Home Builders Institute (HBI) and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) as a sponsor of a unique program geared towards Hispanic college students and construction workers.

Eight Latino college students — members of HHF’s Latinos on Fast Track (LOFT) — are participating in the three-month Team Builders program this summer as program implementation managers responsible for teaching English as a Second Language to Spanish-speaking construction workers using HBI’s Sed de Saber-Construction Edition ESL curriculum.

Sed de Saber-Construction Edition was developed by HBI in partnership with Lowe’s to address the need for English language training for Spanish-speaking workers on the job site. The ESL tool has shown positive results by reducing job site injuries and fatalities, improving the quality of construction and boosting the loyalty and overall morale of workers.

The Team Builders program is operating in Atlanta, Houston, Seattle and Orange County, Calif. The students meet with Spanish-speaking workers at local home builders associations, working closely with HBI and HHF to ensure that program objectives are met. 

In Seattle, we have two outstanding Team Builder Volunteers, David Mendoza of the University of Washington; Matthew Bernton of Seattle University. Below is a shared experience from the Team Builder Volunteers on their current efforts.

Seattle – Day in the Life of a Typical Sed de Saber Construction Session

The summer program is turning into huge success in Seattle, WA not only for the students, but also for the Team Builder Volunteers.

The typical session in Seattle starts with the Team Builder volunteers reviewing each of the categories in the books. The volunteer discusses topics from the book, but they love the teaching freedom they have to expand and add to topics.  For example, they were going over the topic of money and how to read currency/prices. Since the book does not go into detail with financial literacy (i.e. banking and conducting bank transactions) the Team Builder volunteers jumped on this opportunity to elaborate on this topic, knowing that it would be beneficial for the participants.

To ensure the students understand the lessons, the Seattle Team Builder volunteers provide a 14 question exam at the end of each lesson to assess the students’ English skills.

The Team Builder Volunteers are very appreciative of the support they have received from the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBA.) It has provided them access to the center to host the classes in Bellevue, Washington. This has proven to be very convenient and a central location for everyone involved.

In coming issues we will profile the success of other Team Builders volunteers from this summer: Vanessa Barrios of Georgia State University; Jose Navarro of Oglethorpe University; Krystal Castillo of University of Texas – San Antonio; Melvin Granados, a recent graduate of the University of St. Thomas in Houston; Maria Figueroa of the University of California at Riverside; and Paola Chavira of California Polytechnic University.

For personal profiles of the students, visit www.HBI.org/TeamBuilders.
For more information, e-mail Page Browning at HBI, or call her at 800-795-7955 x8918.