Beck School of Construction Celebrates 2020 Graduates, Program Success
- Oct 23, 2020
The Beck School of Construction celebrated its 2020 program participants with a special graduation ceremony at the City of Fort Worth council meeting on October 20. The participants recently completed the nine-month program, which began in February 2020.
“This is a special class that navigated an interesting and unexpected year, and I am proud of this group. They kept their commitment to the program and one another. Even at the very beginning, when we wondered what would happen next in the pandemic, until the very end, they were present and engaged,” said Scot Bennett, Regional Director of the Beck Group’s Fort Worth office.
The Beck School of Construction is a partnership between The Beck Group, the integrated architecture and construction firm, and the City of Fort Worth. The school provides comprehensive training to help Minority Business Enterprises increase their industry knowledge, grow their expertise and capacity, expand their professional networks, and become more competitive in bidding on construction projects.
“This public-private partnership is an excellent example of what successful capacity-building efforts can look like in Fort Worth. In its second year of operation, graduates from the program have been awarded $9.3 million in contracts with $6.2 million coming from the City of Fort Worth awards, and $3.1 million coming from the Beck Group,” said Christina Brooks, director of the City of Fort Worth’s Department of Diversity & Inclusion.
She added, “This partnership serves as a beacon of light challenge. A challenge for other local anchor institutions to find out how they can become partners to support an inclusive economic development through capacity building with underrepresented minority and women firms and entrepreneurs of color.”
The program’s graduating class contains 16 students from the following organizations:
- Jarett Beal, Code Blue Painting & Renovations
- Demetria Bivens, DLB Consultants
- Darryl Brewer, Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce
- Jacquelyn Clayborn, ONC National
- Ramiro De La Cruz, R&D Electrical LLC
- Paula Dixon, CTD Restoration LLC
- Rosa Linda Guajardo, In & Out Cleaning
- Jazmin Gutierrez, Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
- Abraham Jackson, Macias Specialty Contracting LLC
- Luis Lopez, Infinity General Contractor
- Felicia Lucero, TP&R Construction LLC
- Rodney Mirabal, Komerca LLC
- Alexis Rueda, J Ruedas Trucking LLC
- Jenifer Stone, Logistics Management USA Corp
- Zachary Terry, E-Z Construction Services LLC
- Albert Vasquez, HVAC Service Pro
The first class of the Beck School of Construction contained 15 students, who graduated in November 2019.
Get Involved
To be eligible for the Beck School of Construction, applicants must meet the following criteria:
- Their business must be certified as a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) by either the Dallas/Fort Worth Minority Supplier Development Council (DFWMSDC) or the North Central Texas Regional Certification Agency (NCTRCA).
- Their business must have been in operation between one and ten years and should have annual gross revenue of 0,000 or more.
- Their business must provide construction services or construction-related services.
- Their business must be within the area’s six-county marketplace: Tarrant, Dallas, Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise counties.
To learn more, visit the Beck School of Construction page. Applications for the 2021 program will be open in December 2020 – January 2021.