Students helping build the new Sterling Schools Foundation building
By Ava Barnes
STERLING, IL — The Sterling Schools Foundation is getting a new building and the students from across the street at the Whiteside Area Career Center is helping them build it.
The relationship between the two is ideal because the students needed a project for the school year and their new neighbor needed a building built. The instructor of the trade class says his students are learning a lot from this hands on experience.
“They get a feel for the work it takes to build a project of possibly their own or working for a contractor,” Matthew Hicks said. “This just give them the introduction to it and learning the basics.”
Not only are they learning the basics but as mentioned, they needed this project and that is how the Sterling Schools Foundation got involved.
One student says he’s valuing all of the life experiences that he learned while working on this project.
“I think teamwork is a big one,” Kade Decker, junior, said. “Team work is a big one. I mean you get to work with people you never worked with before Sometimes you have ups and downs but all together we are building a building and it’s getting bigger every day.”
Decker says he appreciate the life lessons he’s learning throughout this process
“Yeah, it’s pretty amazing to work with different people. I met some good kids here and it’s been hard like to communicate with them because they are from different schools, football rivalries and all of that, so it’s just awesome to meet them off the field and off the court and everything, it’s just meeting new people and it’s amazing,” Decker said.
