The Tower Fall 2020 - 5

Paying It Forward
Charlie Byers '79
Residential Remodeling Technology | Associate Professor

We all know the feeling when someone pays it forward and we are on the
receiving end. Just this past summer going through a Virginia Mc Donald's drivethru a car in front of me from New Hampshire paid for my breakfast. I beeped
my horn and waved as they drove away from the window in appreciation.
The same can be true for our students at the college. This past fall I enlisted the
services of Josiah Zimmerman Architecture '20 to help create the CAD drawings
for a home that will be built in Virginia in 2022. Josiah was very eager to take
on the project outside of his class time and work with my hand drawn plans to
create the accurate scaled drawings and details that will be used to acquire the
building permit. This task was a great achievement for Josiah and he has this
endeavor to add to his portfolio from his time at Stevens.
During the summer months from May until August Ben Erk Residential
Remodeling '21 completed his summer internship in Virginia with me building
the detached garage for the same property. Since COVID put the college online the last 8 weeks of the spring semester the courses Ben took during that
time included roof framing, exterior finish and site and foundation. The project
over the 13 weeks Ben spent on the job covered all of those and more. Not only
did Ben get to spend 13 weeks in Virginia but he got to work side by side with
his upcoming sophomore Instructor. Yep, I think that may be an advantage and a
disadvantage too! His hard work and dedication to work every week out of state
shows in the building that stands there today.

Darrel Fisher
Former Masonry Technology
Instructor

These examples show the willingness for both students to learn and put
themselves out there to not only work on projects outside of class but work
with an Instructor they didn't even have at the time. Both of these students
excelled in my expectations and they both have standing invitations to visit the
Shenandoah Valley in Virginia anytime!
Former Masonry Technology Instructor Darrel Fisher came from West Virginia to
assist with the block foundation, concrete floors and lifting trusses with the JLG.
He kept trying to convince Ben West Virginia Interns make more money!

Logan Heffner
Residential Remodeling '20

Logan Heffner, Residential Remodeling '20 and Brandon Wissinger Carpentry
'14 along with Andrew Gitlen Carpentry '08 and Tom Byers Carpentry '78 gave
much needed time to the project to make the building weather tight by the time
I was needed to report for the start of the fall semester.
I cannot say enough about the quality of Stevens graduates. Working with each
one of them this summer along with Darrel Fisher affirms my belief we really do
an outstanding job preparing our students for their perspective trades!

Class of 2014
Congratulations to Shawn Pettis '14 (Business
Administration), General Service Manager of Dominion Pest
Control, Lancaster, on becoming the first Public Health
Entomologist Certificate Holder (PHE), a new certification
offered by the Entomological Society of America. Shawn
recently received his PHE certification after becoming
an ACE (Associate Certified Entomologist), another

certification that brings value to a pest organization by
having skills to identify insects and understand their
biology. With diseases like West Nile and Lyme Disease
related to pests found in backyards-such as ticks and
mosquitoes-- Dominion is excited to have Shawn on board
to help make decisions about control measures that can be
implemented on their customer's properties.
Fall 2020  5

The Tower Fall 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Tower Fall 2020