South Side on the Rise

​St. Philip’s College Homebuilders Club Named #1 in the Nation

This article first appeared in the April 2020 edition of Building Savvy magazine, San Antonio's premier homebuilding industry publication.

When I first visited St. Philip’s College - Southwest Campus in early 2016, the dilapidation was obvious. This was a rough side of town, an industrial hub surrounded by working class neighborhoods that had long been neglected. I was the freshly hired government affairs and education director for the Greater San Antonio Builders Association (GSABA) charged with bringing a newly crafted student club to life. The pet project of the late affordable housing developer Dan Markson, was a student chapter at this campus aimed to create a pipeline of skilled talent for the homebuilding industry in the San Antonio area. But on that first day that I arrived, it was clear: there was a long way to go to make this an asset for the southside of San Antonio.

Flash forward to January 2020: the St. Philip’s College - Southwest Campus organization was named the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Outstanding Student Chapter of the Year. The program had emerged from the dirt to national prominence within four years.

Gilbert Noriega, the program coordinator for the homebuilding programs at St. Philip’s, greeted the industry support with open arms when we first met. In 2016, his program served only 30 students with a paltry $4,000 operational budget. The program was sinking fast, and few seemed interested in pumping life into it, despite lip service about supporting skilled trades.

However, I saw the hunger for opportunities in every face I met; I knew that a little attention would go a long way to impact lives here.

Initially we crafted scholarships to be awarded to outstanding students. This is the lowest bar to hurdle in supporting a program that is minority-majority and located in an area of widespread poverty. The next step was to find local service projects that these students, who were eager to put their newly learned skills to the test, could take on. With a lot of need in the nearby neighborhoods, it wasn’t hard to find projects where students would provide labor to rebuild unlivable homes, repair fire damage, or to build accessibility ramps for elderly veterans. I simply served as the nexus between ready-to-work students and large corporations who were willing to donate materials or cash to provide direct aid to the community. Slowly but surely, the money started to flow. These community service projects quickly grabbed the attention of the campus administration, the Alamo Community College District and other local leadership. The St. Philip’s College NAHB student chapter was bridging the corporate world with impoverished neighborhoods. When I presented the student chapter’s work at NAHB’s national conference in 2017, building associations from around the country hounded me to help them create a roadmap to duplicating this collaborative effort in their own communities.

However, in the nonprofit world (such as home building associations), resources are limited and successful new programs such as the student chapters directly compete for dollars with legacy programs, such as fundraisers and social events. That can ruffle feathers, but I was determined to craft a culture of service via the student chapters- it was good for the students, the association, and would build a pipeline of talent for the industry.
My vision for the student chapters at St. Philips and UTSA (which was also recognized as the nation’s best in 2017) was to expand the community service projects into a citywide partnership between business and educational institutions. Certain leadership at the San Antonio builders association, caught up with the day-to-day demands of keeping the lights on and placating demands of powerful members, did not see the vision and I eventually exited the organization in 2018. The student chapter at St. Philip’s College found itself without a champion at GSABA and feared that a return to obscurity was upon them.

However, Gilbert Noriega is not a guy to take a loss without getting back up. He picked up the ball and followed the path that we had created two years earlier by going directly to the community to find gaps the students could fill. The chapter expanded to 70 students and was the buzz of the campus. In 2018, the club’s extensive commitment to serving the community was recognized when NAHB awarded them 3rd place in the Outstanding Student Chapter category, putting the scrappy campus on Quintana Road in the spotlight over well funded 4-year institutions like Michigan State, Purdue, and Brigham Young. This caught the attention of a lot of people, and the chapter’s president Sam Velez was recognized as one of the top student chapter leaders in the nation.
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For 2019, the St. Philip’s College-Southwest Campus chapter set one goal: to be #1. Their meteoric rise to national recognition was commanded by a determined Noriega, who found creative ways to fund projects as GSABA leadership lost interest. From retrofitting a pet shelter in Kerrville to revamping inner city community centers and residential properties, the St. Philip’s College student chapter continued to do the tough work where others didn’t think it was worth their time. In January of 2020, the chapter was recognized as the nation’s best in its 4th year of existence. Also, the chapter’s President Sandra Vasquez (yes, the homebuilding program at St. Philip’s is often 20-25% female) was recognized as one of the nation’s best. Something special is brewing on the south side, and all it takes is members of the industry to show up, listen, and partner with these energized students. The end result could be an organic revitalization on that side of town, as well as the creation of the next generation of homebuilders.

Interested in getting involved with local construction management students by donating your expertise, experiences or resources? Awesome, it isn’t too late. The St. Philip’s Chapter plans to compete in the construction management competition at the International Builders Show in Orlando, FL in 2021. Help them reach new heights by reaching out to Gilbert Noriega at gnoriega6@alamo.edu.