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“Ugly imperfect action is better than unfinished perfection,” Dean of Advanced Technology and Industry Engagement Dr. Michael Hepner told prospective construction trades students in grades 9-12 from area high schools Oct. 16 at Southwestern Michigan College’s “Sawdust Day.”

Some 80 students from Van Buren Tech in Lawrence, the St. Joseph County Career and Technical Education (CTE) Consortium, Watervliet, Lawton, Branch Area Careers Center in Coldwater, Hartford and Berrien Springs toured the Dowagiac campus in four groups.

“I shouldn’t be here,” Hepner began, “because I wasn’t a great student in high school. I grew up poor, homeless in third and fourth grades,” he said. “I had three sisters and we lived in my mom’s Chevy Monte Carlo. She had a hot plate she plugged into one of the lamp posts in the Walmart parking lot. It was pretty terrible, so I started working like a dog,” baling hay, slaughtering hogs, working at McDonald’s and roofing,” scraping through high school with a “terrible” GPA.

“One good football game” with 12 tackles and three sacks against the defending state champions which a Southern Illinois recruiter witnessed changed his trajectory, though Hepner started college on probation. After washing out, he temporarily returned to roofing.

On Dec. 23, 1997, Hepner returned to Southern Illinois intent on “begging” his way into an academic comeback. He caught an official putting on her coat for the holidays and persuaded her by promising to earn straight A’s.

“I ended up with an English degree and a 2.72 GPA,” Hepner said. “I became a writer for John Deere and got fired, so enrolled in paramedic school at community college. I applied to graduate school” and parlayed coursework at Southern Illinois to Indiana State to study criminology, lifting his GPA to 3.84.

“I started teaching after that,” Hepner said, “so I thought I’d get a Ph.D. at St. Louis University,” but ended up in Lindenwood University’s doctoral program in St. Charles, Mo., rather than wait a year.

“By the time I got my doctorate, I had a 4.0,” he said. “And I picked up a second master’s degree with a 4.0. I’m telling you this because imperfect action is always better than a perfect plan. Sitting around waiting for things to be perfect is worthless.

“I’m glad you’re here because SMC is a great place — or a great place to start over. And I’m glad you’re thinking about the trades, which are a great place to be because of the demand.”

Drew Ickes, 2024 SMC graduate and former Construction Club president, graduated from high school in Saranac, east of Grand Rapids.

“A community college with housing is very appealing if you want to have the college experience but not pay four-year prices,” he said.

Ickes joined third-generation, 75-year-old Dan Vos Construction fulltime right out of SMC. He recently bought a home in Grand Rapids.

“They’ve been an amazing company to work for,” he said. “My title is carpenter, but I’ve been able to be part of the construction industry in many ways due to the variety of work the company performs — large-scale commercial work, high-end residential and industrial-style projects. I work in the field with the fourth-generation, who’s also 23.”

Vos specializes in food processing, industrial, private education and worship facilities.

“We don’t build houses,” Ickes said. “We do factories. Very little traditional wood framing like you see like in a house. It’s all steel and concrete.”

Vos built a $180 million facility for fairlife, maker of ultra-filtered, lactose-free milk and protein beverages Coca-Cola owns.

He displayed a slide of Dutton Christian School in Caledonia. “No wood,” he said. “It’s all block and metal. The commercial industry is a  lot different than the residential industry. Commercial work is very consistent because if a school needs more classrooms, they have to do it. Every summer we build additions for Dutton Christian. Now we’re doing this gymnasium.”

Another client is the MMPA, the Michigan Milk Producers Association. The farmer-owned cooperative had Vos construct a building in Constantine.

For Paws with a Cause, the Allegan County non-profit that trains working dogs, Vos built a house within a warehouse with metal studs, metal trusses, non-combustible wood and concrete floors.

“As a carpenter,” Ickes said, “I focus on a lot of cabinets and trim work. Construction is a very broad term. We’re a general contractor. We’ve got sub-contractors doing lots of things, like IMP (insulated metal panels) and roofing. Jobs run easier when you bring in specialists. Find a niche. Be an electrician, be a framer, be a roofer. You can be a fire-suppression guy or an HVAC guy.”

Ickes showed an image of a U-Haul building Vos erected in South Haven to join locations in Grand Rapids and Brighton. “We’re all over the state so you’re not commuting to the same place every day,” said Ickes, who worked from Benton Harbor last week.

Ickes recommends recent graduates gain experience specializing in an interest while working for someone before attempting to strike out on their own “or you might bite off more than you can chew.”

Ickes studied under Professor John Tinker, who guided visitors through SMC’s Construction Trades Green Technology Program in the Jan and A.C. Kairis Building.