Students receive roofing industry scholarship
The Roofing Alliance has announced the recipients of its Melvin Kruger Scholarship for the 2025-26 academic year.
The following were awarded new scholarships:
- Jonathan Burt II, studying skilled trades at Henry Ford College, Dearborn, Mich.
- Noah Donahoe, studying construction management at Minnesota State University, Mankato
- Aldyn Hartman, studying building science at Auburn University, Auburn, Ala.
- Erin McCoy, studying construction management at University of Florida, Gainesville
- Lainie Morgan, studying architectural design at University of Florida
- Caleb Morrison, studying civil engineering at University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
- Graham Roh, studying building science at Auburn University
- Kyle Zirigner, studying construction management at Columbus State Community College, Columbus, Ohio
The Roofing Alliance Melvin Kruger Scholarship Program offers three scholarship opportunities. All categories are open to employees of roofing industry companies, their spouses and their dependent children, as well as construction management students enrolled in undergraduate level programs or students enrolled in career and technical education programs or schools (regardless of industry affiliation).
In addition, the Roofing Alliance renewed 11 Melvin Kruger Scholarships for the 2025-26 academic year. The recipients include:
- Caylin Angel, who is attending Wheeling Jesuit University, Wheeling, W.Va.
- Evan Cady, who is attending Western New England University, Springfield, Mass.
- Cole Celano, who is attending University of North Florida, Jacksonville
- Kennedy Jones, who is attending North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro
- Cecelia Krumholz, who is attending University of Minnesota: Twin Cities, Minneapolis
- Hallie Lemmon, who is attending West Virginia University, Morgantown
- Piper Lewis, who is attending Boston College
- Brayden Morford, who is attending Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
- Alexis Petty, who is attending Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, Ind.
- Melina Risi, who is attending Clemson University, Clemson, S.C.
- Kennedy Stockton, who is attending University of Arkansas at Little Rock
The Roofing Alliance awarded $32,000 for new scholarships and $55,000 for scholarship renewals for a total of $87,000 for the 2025-26 school year. To date, 173 students have received $1.252 million in scholarship awards.
Creating a positive customer experience
Everyone has had a bad experience as a customer. As a company, creating an easy, positive customer experience is crucial to gaining and keeping customers and growing your business.
For Construction Pros shares the following tips to ensure your customers have a good experience.
- Answer calls promptly and respond to them in a timely manner. This seems simple but often is one of the biggest complaints from customers or potential customers. Being responsive is crucial to attracting more work and can help you stand out from your competition.
- Provide a quote in a timely manner. Ideally, you would send a quote hours after initial contact rather than weeks later.
- Ensure you completely understand what you are selling. People who ask for a quote want to know options, differences among the options, materials you will be using and more. Be sure your team has the necessary knowledge and training.
- Make scheduling a breeze. Work to complete projects within a reasonable timeframe and avoid overscheduling. It is important the schedule you provide for customers is accurate to avoid frustration and lost business.
- Promptly invoice customers after the project is completed and be open to various payment methods. Delaying invoicing and restricting payment options affects cash flow. Consider making it more convenient for customers by offering payment options besides checks and credit cards, such as Apple Pay, PayPal and Venmo.
- Be available to answer questions and provide support. When customers call with a problem or complaint, answer and solve their problem immediately.
Improved communication is needed on bilingual job sites
CPWR–The Center for Construction Research and Training recently hosted Improving Safety Climate for Hispanic Construction Workers, a webinar that examined findings from a study led by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Topics included the results from a survey of 500 construction workers and interviews with more than 50 workers. At least 85% of respondents were Latino, according to Safety+Health magazine.
Survey results show only about half of injured Latino workers reported workplace injuries or illnesses to their supervisors. Additionally, 51% of Spanish-speaking Latino workers and 67% of English-speaking Latino workers reported feeling ignored or not taken seriously by a supervisor either “once a week or more” or “a few times a month.”
To combat these issues, webinar presenters suggest increasing the number of Spanish-speaking supervisors in the field and prioritizing real-time interpretation on job sites by conducting important meetings in English and Spanish and identifying translators with hard hat stickers or helmets of a different color.
“It’s best if you can make sure that there’s someone bilingual on every team,” says Maija Leff, associate director of the Carolina Center for Healthy Work Design and Worker Well-being, Chapel Hill, N.C. “Better if that bilingual person is actually your foreman or ... someone who has some authority.”
Additional recommendations include involving workers in finding solutions for safer workplaces; implementing worker-led safety committees in workers’ main languages; aligning safety messages with Latino cultural work values; teaching supervisors the differences between Latino and American culture; and ensuring all essential documents are available in English and Spanish.
To learn about NRCA’s Spanish membership offerings, go to spanish.nrca.net.
