The National Housing Endowment, the philanthropic arm of NAHB, recently awarded up to $195,000 in HELP ― Homebuilding Education Leadership Program — grants to Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kan., and Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pa., to help fund improvements to their residential construction management programs.

The grants were announced at the NAHB Student Chapter Award Ceremony at the 2011 NAHB International Builders’ Show in Orlando earlier this month. Nearly 1,000 students and faculty attended the ceremony.

“You students today are so lucky to have the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of the building industry in the classroom,” Rick Judson, 2011 NAHB second vice chairman of NAHB, told the attendees. “I learned it the hard way and I am very jealous of the educational experience you have in your schools, with your NAHB Student Chapters and the investment made by the National Housing Endowment in these schools.”

The 2011 grants were awarded to:

• Pittsburg State University, which was awarded $95,000 over four years to enhance its emphasis in residential construction, consolidate courses and modify curriculum to include NAHB designations. The grant will help enable the university to create a more comprehensive curriculum and provide its students with a competitive advantage in today’s job market.
  
  
• Pennsylvania State University, which was awarded up to $100,000 over three years to match a grant awarded by Lutron Electronics. The two grants will enable Penn State to start an endowed fund that enables an industry practitioner to annually teach a residential construction class and an industrial lighting class. The courses enable Penn State to expand its residential construction program and move closer to offering students the ability to minor in the program.

“Through the HELP grants, the National Housing Endowment works to help the residential construction industry develop more advanced and effective approaches to home building as well as to ensure that the industry has an ample and well-trained supply of future workers and leaders,” said Gary Garczynski, endowment chairman and 2002 NAHB president.

The endowment established the HELP initiative in 2006 to bolster or start residential construction management programs in two- and four-year colleges and universities across the country and to increase the number of qualified graduates entering the industry. To date, the endowment has awarded more than $1.5 million in HELP grants to educational institutions.

For more information on HELP grants, call the endowment at 800-368-5242 x8069, or visit www.nationalhousingendowment.org.

HELP is the signature grant program of the endowment and the cornerstone of its education effort. More than $1.5 million has been awarded to educational institutions since the program’s inception.

Previous HELP grant recipients include California Baptist University; California Polytechnic University-San Luis Obispo; Cincinnati State Technical and Community College; Colorado State University; East Carolina University; the Georgia Institute of Technology; Jefferson State Community College; John A. Logan College; the University of Maryland Eastern Shore; Middle Tennessee State University; the University of Nebraska; the University of Nebraska-Kearney; North Dakota State University; Northern Kentucky University; Prairie View A&M University; Purdue University; Texas A&M University; and Western Carolina University.  

For more information on HELP grants, call the endowment at 800-368-5242 x8483, or visit www.nationalhousingendowment.org.