Case Study: Student Home Building – unCommon Construction at Exploration High School
Building Homes, Building Futures
This program, in partnership with unCommon Construction and Exploration High School, offers hands-on construction training, teaching students skills while building homes for low-income families.
Key Partnerships:
VELA Education Fund: Provided micro-grants to test operations and support expansion.
Stand Together Foundation and Curry Foundation: Funded a site director to launch the program in Minneapolis.
Habitat for Humanity and MSR Design Architects: Enabled real-world learning through tours and architectural design activities.
Electrical Association: Supported career exploration with trade demonstrations and mentorship.
Process and Outcomes:
Built tiny homes with materials and budgets ranging from $45,000 to $100,000.
Expanded partnerships to include additional schools like Minnesota Internship Center and Henry High School.
Connected students with industry mentors, resulting in internships and jobs, including paid apprenticeships at Urban Boatbuilders.
Integrated project-based learning with career readiness, communication skills, and team building.
Student Voices:
"Construction seemed hard, but with guidance, I realized I can accomplish big things." – Light, 17.
"I learned teamwork and skills that I’ll use after high school." – Emmanuel, 17.
Lessons Learned:
Focus on student-centered learning to align skills with industry needs.
Develop strong partnerships and networks for support and sustainability.
Avoid mission drift by staying committed to your goals and engaging students in program design.
Light working on the house (photo from Spencer Grant) Emmanuel, 17: ” In general, we learned life skills, teamwork and career paths…something to do after high school. I want to be a barber.” Marquis, 17 One thing that I learned that’s useful is team bonding skills. You have to be good at communicating. That’s how you get things done fast. Working in the cold was not fun. It’s much better when we completed the frame (and worked inside) I’m chill.
This tiny house (currently on Exploration High school Campus) is the first one we built. We began in fall 2022 just with Exploration High School. In spring 2023, we added Minnesota Internship Center & Henry High School (Community Connection Academy). This 2023-24 school year, more schools are joining: Mn Transitions, and Venture Academy. I became connected with Henry via a former TFA person operating the CCA at Henry. We anticipate that work will be completed by the end of October, 2023.
Spencer Grant: “I tinkered and built a lot of things while growing up. I did service trips around state of Mn, painting, landscaping, in high school. I was exposed to emergency home repair. Church community 1 week during summer. Grew up in SW Mpls, graduated from St. Thomas, degree in psychology.” “I left UnCommon in Louisiana in 2018. It was an amazing program. In my heart, I felt it should be available in every city, and stayed connected with founder. ” unCommon Construction secured a micro-grant from the VELA Education Fund. This let us test whether we can engage with students and build homes. We built three little free libraries. unCommon was part of Stand Together Foundation and Curry Foundation that helped support expansion. Nationally, unCommon Construction has been the subject of an article in a national magazine devoted to the construction industry. It also was a finalist, winning a substantial cash award, in the 2022 national YASS Prize competition. Spencer Grant – photo provided by Mr. Grant
Inside – nearly finished as of Oct 2023
Team who completed the first house (Chavi, Ayden and Gabe, all up top; Spencer and Mimi, middle; and Rey, uCC Staff, bottom right. Photo from Spencer Grant
Two of the Exploration High School Students who worked on the tiny house (Photo by Joe Nathan)
Alycia Monserrate (Exploration Staff) This project helped students look forward. Some of the students who excelled in this project had struggled to get to school. This got them motivation. It really helped them to show up and be present. One of the students participating in the project has continued to build things. We leveraged a position offer for him with unCommon. He just got accepted into Urban Boatbuilders. He’s now being paid to build boats. We really appreciated relationship with UnCommon.