CIW – Empower Growth & Expand Opportunity: SPM Brent Lee, PE Divine Opubor, & More Discuss Life-Changing Impact of Local Workforce Programs

This Construction Inclusion Week (CIW) article centers on CIW’s “Empower Growth” and “Expand Opportunity” themes.

Most Webcorians have met one of the program interns or apprentices working at our projects/offices at some point over the years. Others are working with a program alumnus who became a full-time Webcorian—like Project Engineer Divine Opubor—right now.

• Before she was a full-time project engineer (PE) in Los Angeles’s Estimating department, Divine was a three-time Webcor PE intern and ACE Mentor Program mentee. In high school, she was mentored by ACE mentor/former Webcorian Sharla Sullivan, who’s continued to be a constant source of support in the years since Divine graduated.
• “From the start, Sharla encouraged me to pursue construction and emphasized the wide variety of career paths available in this industry,” Divine says. “My ACE experience gave me the chance to explore my career interests outside the classroom, connect with industry professionals, and learn which career path within architecture/engineering/construction (AEC) I could see myself pursuing.”

Divine’s experience reflects the ultimate goal of our workforce development partnerships: to build a pipeline of enthusiastic, ambitious, skilled engineers and builders ready to hit the ground running at Webcor once they graduate. It all starts with investing our time and energy in the next generation of construction leaders.

Few Webcorians have experienced the rewards of that investment more often than Sr. Project Manager Brent Lee. Since 2024, Brent’s managed Cristo Rey CWS interns (two consecutive school years) and an ACE extern (two consecutive summers), volunteered as an ACE mentor in Oakland, and worked with a carpenter apprentice who graduated from Rising Sun, an Oakland-based multi-craft core curriculum (MC3) program.

• Brent emphasizes that these partnerships don’t just serve program participants—they serve Webcor. When we take the time to mentor/train them and immerse them in hands-on construction work, we’re better able to gauge their potential by evaluating  their work ethic, communication skills, curiosity, creativity, and interest in the industry up close.

“Not all program participants will end up at Webcor, but they’ll still be exposed to opportunities in our industry and develop important relationships early on,” Brent says. “If we do that consistently, some of those students and pre-apprentices will become college interns, apprentices, project engineers, superintendents, and project managers. By partnering with these programs, we’re essentially investing in our future workforce before we need to hire them.”

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Workforce Partner Alumni & Cristo Rey Intern Share Their Experiences

Below, Divine, Joshua Stevenson-Vigil (Rising Sun graduate now working with Brentwood Mechanical on East County Services Center), and Omar Alvarez (current Cristo Rey CWS intern and former ACE Mentor Program extern) share how these programs ignited their fascination with construction work, prepared them for their first construction jobs through technical and soft skills training, introduced them to their first industry contacts, and solidified their decisions to pursue careers and/or degrees in AEC.

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Divine Opubor, Project Engineer

LA Estimating

ACE Mentor Program

“I’ve always been a very curious person. As a kid, I was especially curious about design and construction—I’d look at tall buildings and wonder how they were built and what it took for the construction workers to reach the finished stage. The ACE Mentor Program gave me a much clearer understanding of what happens behind the scenes and helped me connect that curiosity to an actual career.

I heard about ACE through my high school architecture teacher, Mr. Hoang. He knew I was interested in architecture/construction and introduced me to Mr. Emiliano Sanchez, who co-led ACE’s Oakland group. I’d also heard good things about ACE from my classmates, so I decided to give it a try, especially because I was still trying to figure out a specific career path to pursue within AEC.

My time as an ACE mentee taught me more than I ever could have imagined about teamwork, collaboration, and communication. I collaborated with ACE teammates and mentors on hands-on projects, participated in ACE’s student competitions, and toured jobsites with different construction companies.

• Before ACE, my interest in the AEC industry was there, but I didn’t know what to do with it. ACE gave me valuable opportunities to experience the industry in a practical way and helped me genuinely see myself pursuing a career in construction. By the time college applications came around, I felt much more prepared to commit to construction management.
  

In 2022, I completed my first summer PE internship with Webcor Carpentry. Webcor was a whole new world, but my ACE background helped me make sense of what I was learning. I’d already been exposed to construction basics and visited jobsites through ACE, so I was already familiar with some of the terminology and concepts I was hearing on-site and in the office.

In May, I graduated from CSU Northridge with my construction management degree, and in August, I joined Webcor as a full-time PE in LA’s Estimating department. Working with and learning from my team has been extremely rewarding—everyone has been patient and taken the time to thoughtfully guide me, even during this particularly busy season. This is my first time doing this kind of construction work at this level, so I’m learning something new every day, including realizations about preconstruction/estimating misconceptions I once held.

General contractors and industry professionals have the power to give students real-world construction exposure and mentorship that they otherwise wouldn’t experience. Mentorships, internships, and site tours all give students the opportunity to learn directly from construction professionals and begin building their professional networks, making a career in this industry feel much more accessible.

• Connections really do matter, especially when you’re trying to break into the industry. As a student, you can learn about a certain career in the classroom, but connecting with an industry professional who’s willing to answer questions, introduce you to a relevant opportunity, or simply expose you to construction work has a lasting impact.

That’s something I really value about ACE—the relationships extend far beyond the duration of the program. I’m very grateful that several of the people I met when I was a high school ACE student have chosen to remain a part of my journey as I’ve graduated from college and entered my first career-level job.”

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Joshua Stevenson-Vigil, Plumber (Broadway Mechanical)

East County Service Center

Rising Sun

“I learned about Rising Sun at an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting. I was early in my recovery and working on getting my life back together when I met someone who would later become my case manager at Rising Sun. At that point, things were looking pretty grim, but getting into recovery gave me hope that my life could be different.

• When she told me about Rising Sun and the opportunities in the trades, it felt like another piece of that transformation. Recovery gave me the chance to change my life, and Rising Sun gave me a direction in which to take it. I was excited to get my hands into something new, learn a trade, and start building a career.

Rising Sun solidified my decision to pursue this career long-term. I already knew that I enjoyed working with my hands, building things, and solving problems, but the program showed me that those interests could turn into a stable and rewarding career. It exposed me to different trades, apprenticeship programs, unions, contractors, and people already working in the industry. That gave me a much clearer picture of where I wanted to go and what I needed to do to get there. It felt like being introduced to a whole new world of opportunity.

• The program gave me a strong foundation for entering the construction trades—we learned everything from construction math and tool knowledge to carpentry, welding, safety, and what to expect on an actual jobsite. We also earned certifications and learned about the different union trades and apprenticeship opportunities available to us.
• Rising Sun also taught me how to approach the trades as a career rather than just a job. They emphasized the importance of showing up prepared, being dependable, taking initiative, staying teachable, and understanding that your reputation matters in this industry. It also gave me access to mentors and people who genuinely wanted to see me succeed. I stopped looking at construction as simply a way to make money and started looking at it as a career where I could continue developing skills, become a journeyman, and eventually help the next person coming into the industry.

After graduating, I wasn’t able to get work right away, so I hit the streets and applied at this warehouse. I ended up becoming a tile setter for about a year until I got the call from my union.

The second I got the call, it was basically all gas, no brakes. I started working as a full-time plumber and really haven’t looked back since. It was a big transition, but Rising Sun had given me the foundation and confidence to take that opportunity seriously and keep moving forward in the trade.

• I've applied everything Rising Sun taught me to my role with Broadway Mechanical, a trade partner on East County Service Center. The technical skills, safety training, tool knowledge, and hands-on experience gave me a strong foundation, while the lessons about professionalism, punctuality, teamwork, taking initiative, and staying teachable have helped me succeed on the job. I’m proud to be working with Broadway Mechanical, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to keep developing as a plumber and a future welder.

Programs like Rising Sun create opportunities for people who have the ability and work ethic to succeed in the trades but aren’t sure how to get their foot in the door. Sometimes what people are missing isn’t motivation—it’s access, information, training, mentorship, and the environment around them.

When general contractors and subcontractors partner with workforce development programs, they help bridge that gap. It gives contractors access to people who are motivated and prepared to work while giving community members a real pathway to life-changing careers.

• I’m an example of what can happen when those connections are made. Rising Sun helped prepare me for the opportunity, and now I’m continuing to build my career as a union apprentice while contributing to a major project in my own community. Partnerships like these strengthen the workforce, the industry, and the communities in which these projects are built.

There was a time when I really didn’t know what my future was going to look like. Now I wake up with somewhere to be and something I’m working toward. I have a career where I’m constantly learning, I can see myself building a stable life and having a family one day, and I know I can actually provide for that family.

For a long time, I was just trying to survive. Today, I’m actually building a life. And if I can use what I’ve been through and what I’m learning now to reach back and help somebody else build theirs, then everything I went through can mean something.”

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Omar Alvarez, Cristo Rey Intern

Accounting

Cristo Rey Corporate Work Study & ACE Mentor Program

"This is my second year interning with Webcor’s Accounting department through the Cristo Rey Corporate Work Study (CWS) program. I also supported the dept. as an ACE Mentor Program extern for two summers.

Before Webcor, I wasn’t sure what career path to pursue after high school. I didn’t gain much from the CWS internships I completed my freshman and sophomore years and was really starting to doubt the value of the program.

Interning at Webcor completely changed my mindset. Here, I’ve been entrusted with real, hands-on work like document review, invoice validation, and check processing support. Before Webcor, I’d never created a spreadsheet; now, not only can I make my own detailed sheets from scratch, but I can create and integrate time-saving spreadsheet formulas. I’ve really enjoyed learning from Sarah Kisslinger and my manager, Melissa Hayward, who are the best at figuring out ways to maximize efficiency through Smartsheet and Excel formulas.

While supporting Accounting as an ACE extern, I was also exposed to the construction side of the business through job walks. I toured UC Berkeley Housing Project No. 2, which got me interested in field work. After talking to some of my friends who supported Webcor projects as ACE externs and CWS interns, I’ve decided to major in construction management and minor in business, hopefully at UC San Diego or UC Berkeley. I think it’ll effectively combine the skills I’ve learned in Accounting with the field exposure I gained as an ACE extern. I don’t see myself sitting behind a computer all day, every day, so I really like the idea of a construction career that combines both field and office work.

I can honestly say that interning at Webcor has been a great experience. I’ve learned so much about the pre-work and pre-planning that take place before a project breaks ground and the opportunities to move from the office to the field (or vice versa), as well as the great work that support departments like Accounting do. My confidence in the workplace has really grown, especially when it comes to asking questions. My team here has taught me that people don’t learn by themselves—they need to listen and learn from others."