Block Kids Competition At Air Base K-8

The highly rated Magnet school, Air Base K-8 Center, in Homestead is never lacking for activities. Tuesday, February 8, 2022 was the scene of a new one though as the Miami Chapter of The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) selected it for their annual Block Kids Competition.

The building competition was created for grade school students in 1990 and Lucia Soria, Founder and President, Ram-Tech Construction, is a former NAWIC president and strong advocate for trades training. “Introducing construction at an early age can lead to a viable career path. With Block Kids we demonstrate the variety of careers in construction.”

As it happens, Thornton Construction Company, Inc., did the building for part of the school during a recent renovation. When NAWIC discussed holding the competition in deep South Dade, NAWIC member and Thornton employee Kim Paez, reached out to the previous project manager who helped coordinate with the school. In addition to the professional connection, the chapter wanted to highlight the number of students from military families who attend the Center.

Assistant Principal Niki Milian, who has been at the school for eight years, was a primary contact for Thornton Construction during the project and she immediately agreed.

Milian has been with Miami Dade County Public Schools for twenty-five years and actually began substitute teaching at age nineteen at Braddock High School. In watching the students focused on their task, she mentioned she, too, learned something new about aspects of construction careers in the introduction to the competition. “I didn’t know there was a Construction Law specialty.”

The competition is no spur-of-the-moment process as Principal Alonza Pendergrass said. “I want to thank NAWIC for making this possible for our children. I want to thank our teachers who have been preparing our children for over a month to get ready for this competition.”

Students were divided into groups with a volunteer judge at each table. The core supply was 100 Legos and four other materials of rock, string, construction paper, and aluminum foil were provided. Students could choose up to three of the extra four to use and the end product was to be something in service to a community. The decision of what to build and why the choice, were also part of what judges considered. The first-place winner will go on to compete within the Southeast region, and each region winner competes at the national level.

Luisa Santo, School Board Member, District 9, was able to stop in for a while. “This is one more opportunity for our young people to be exposed to careers they might not otherwise consider. The creativity we see is inspiring and most of all bringing our community partners into our schools is fantastic.”

Energy, enthusiasm, and excited chatter filled the room with the students, teachers, staff, NAWIC members, and other volunteers.

Kametra Driver, Director, Homestead Community Redevelopment Agency, was a judge. “This was an awesome event. It was great to see so many kids get engaged in building things and having fun.”

During the break for the judges to be out to determine the rankings, Krystal Johnson, Science and Math teacher, praised the students while NAWIC members and teachers gave out snacks, “goodies bags”, and held a raffle. “We are so grateful for this opportunity. You were super creative and showed perseverance. All of you did a phenomenal job,” were among her comments.

And speaking of perseverance there was a special drawing after the regular raffle. The competition was challenging and just as in real-life construction, plan, design, and effort don’t always go as expected. There were students who encountered problems, and in a few cases, their builds came apart. How they handled this was quietly observed and the names of those students who nonetheless did not give up were placed into the separate drawing. Zakiyiah Walker’s name was called out to a round of applause.

The judges were impressed with all the students and in fact, there was a tie for third place shared by Luciana and Caitlyn M. Second place went to Johnathan Virgel and Anaias was awarded first place with her making of a Solar Panel Service Station.

Victoria Tomas, of the Moss Department of Construction Management College of Engineering and Computing, who was also a judge, gestured to the model after the announcement. “It was very creative and it’s the future”; then added, “She wants to be an engineer.”

Although not everyone could “win,” everyone did in the sense of enjoying the morning.

“It was fun”; “I liked the way we could specialize”; and “We got to build things.”