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LAUSD iSEE internship students Grace Park, Allen Garcia, Frank Osorio, Misael Perez and Prudencio Pagan began their summer internship at Central Los Angeles Learning Center #1 this July. iSEE allows any interested LAUSD high school junior or senior to gain hands-on experience in green building.
Photo by Janie Buelow for LAUSD

By Samantha Koos

Nothing beats the confidence of a high school student who can look you in the eye and tell you exactly how his or her chosen career path will make this world a greener, healthier place.

Along with districts throughout the country, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is engaged in finding answers to questions that are critical to the sustainability movement: Where will the trained workforce come from to make a sustainable world a reality? How can we influence public education to adopt new curriculum and more concrete green career preparation, when budget cuts have left it barely standing?

Luckily, the opportunity to develop our greatest resource for a greener, more efficient world – inspired and driven students – does not depend on money alone. Moreover, teachers have natural allies in their efforts to inspire future generations: dedicated professionals already working in green careers.

LAUSD’s iSEE (I’m a Student Exploring Excellence) high school architecture and engineering internship program presents a model of partnership with building industry professionals that is proving successful in cultivating a talented and skilled green workforce.

iSEE, now in its third year, was initially developed in response to a lack of diversity and capacity in the fields of architecture, engineering and construction that LAUSD encountered in carrying out its $20.3 billion school construction and modernization program. Today, the program stands as an innovative supplement to traditional classroom education that allows any interested LAUSD high school junior or senior to gain hands-on experience in fields that are laying the groundwork for a greener building industry.

“The iSEE program is an example of the great benefits of workforce development for students, and a wonderful example of what our students can achieve when given the opportunity,” LAUSD Chief Facilities Executive Guy Mehula said. “Since 2001, we have been committed to building new schools and modernizing our existing campuses to green building standards, and today we are also committed to ensuring the construction industry will have the talent necessary to continue this important work well into the future.”

In addition to enabling students to graduate high school with college credit, real-world work experience and a comprehensive view of the world of construction, iSEE provides an avenue for the building industry partners involved in LAUSD's building program to directly give back to students and to inspire the region’s next generation of "green" builders.

“The iSEE internship program bridges a gap that has existed in the college preparatory courses for many years, because it exposes young interns to a career in construction management rather than only the manual labor opportunity,” Hensel Phelps Construction Company Project Manager Julio Vasquez said. “Hensel Phelps views the iSEE Internship program as a long term investment for the construction industry; who knows - our next leader at Hensel Phelps could realistically be in the iSEE program today. For this reason alone, supporting the iSEE program has immeasurable worth.”

Before students jump into their summer internships, they complete one of two computer aided design (CAD) courses offered through a partnership with Los Angeles Trade Technical College (LATTC). Students additionally attend a series of five seminars that provide an introduction to architecture, engineering, construction and construction management. The combination of the seminars and the LATTC classes allows students to fully take advantage of their roles as summer interns.

This summer, the iSEE program is providing Grace Park, Allen Garcia, Frank Osorio, Misael Perez and Prudencio Pagan – five very confident and driven high schoolers – an opportunity to intern on a historic construction project at the Ambassador Hotel site, currently known as Central Los Angeles Learning Center #1, part of LAUSD’s acclaimed green school construction program.

Four of the five students are in their second year of the iSEE program. All have completed a CAD course and two have a course in Revit building information modeling under their belt. In addition to the wide variety of lessons iSEE offers – from math and science to teamwork to drafting – the experience is allowing these students an opportunity to hone their innate good sense about the world, money and the environment.

“There’s a lot going on - global warming, recession – we need to be able to make our money work for us,” Osorio said. “If other companies use green building standards, they will get recognized and that will encourage other companies to use them as well.”

“In constructing buildings, we manipulate nature to suit us and destroy it in the process. It is absolutely crucial to incorporate sustainability – things like natural cooling systems, solar - because ultimately it benefits us,” Park said. “As an architect I will have the ability to protect the environment. If I can change buildings, which contribute a great deal to global warming, I can help save the world.”

Beyond building on their general hopefulness about the future, these students have also mastered a good amount of technical understanding. When asked about the future of green in construction, Perez was quick to point out that construction is already using more sustainable practices. “The K-5 portion of the school here uses wood that is supplied from companies that make sure the trees are replanted. The school is also gaining points for being green because the construction site is using recycled materials like rebar used to reinforce concrete.”

“Green building standards like CHPS and LEED are being used to integrate the construction industry so it won’t hurt the environment as much as before – how they use rain water and recycle it or how even the basic colors and structures of the buildings can affect energy efficiency,” Pagan added. “If we build buildings up instead of out we have more room for other resources for the community – like parks and pools.”

It is clear that the internship portion of the experience, where students are paid to work for six weeks on a construction site or at an architecture firm, is key to students envisioning themselves in their future careers.

“In the classroom you imagine; in the internship, you do,” Perez explained. “In an internship you can see change happen before your eyes.”

These students are not successful purely because of the opportunity afforded through the iSEE program; they all have a record of leadership in their own lives, taking the steps necessary to better themselves for their own futures and that of their families and communities. From attending a magnet school that focuses on architecture on the other side of the city to starting a math, engineering and science club at school, to helping a parent learn computer skills to get a better job, these students have an enormous sense of optimism, the power of choice and individual responsibility.

“It doesn’t matter your neighborhood, it doesn’t matter your parents, it’s up to the person,” Garcia said. “You look at other people and you see some of the people you grew up with who dropped out of school and the kind of life they have now and you decide you don’t want that. That pushes you to do better.”

“My drive comes from my experience. Every time I move somewhere or go somewhere I am looked down upon. I went to an elementary school that was taken over by the state,” Pagan said. “I go to a high school where because of the high drop-out rate people assume we’re not smart. Sometimes our greatest weakness is our greatest strength. I decided to take it upon myself to help other people learn. That’s why I joined iSEE to take my drive and see what I can achieve.”

Robert F. Kennedy said in one of his famous speeches, soon to be immortalized in an art installation in the Ambassador’s public park, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”  

Nearly half a century later, these words echo what the five iSEE interns at the Ambassador K-12 project site know: their individual acts to better themselves are infinitely important to affecting large scale change, no matter what state of the economy.

As for those nagging questions: Who will fill these “green collar” jobs?  Where will the trained workforce come from to make a sustainable world a reality?  With the help of the college experience and  professional partnerships through LAUSD’s iSEE Program, Grace Park, Allen Garcia, Frank Osorio, Misael Perez and Prudencio Pagan and their fellow program participants across LAUSD are well on their way to directing that current of change.

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