By Megan Yang
On Friday, April 14, 2023, Redwood High School’s Academy of Architecture, Construction, and Engineering [ACE] took part in the Construction and Management event at the Tulare County Office of Education [TCOE] College and Career Expo.
Redwood took two teams to the College of the Sequoias Visalia Campus to participate.
One of the teams consisted of Brenna Brasil ’24, Jennah Creason ’24, Abigail Vences ’24, and Zurisadai Balanzar-Salgado ’24. The girls won first place.
The team was tasked to build a wall frame. They had a time limit of two hours to both build the frame and take a written test.
Brasil says, “I think a big thing we learned was time management because we had such a short time period. A lot of it was working together, and we all had to create different tasks for each other while working as a team to get it done.”
She adds, “[I] felt very accomplished. Our team was filled with girls, and the other team was all guys. They took second place, so it felt very good to beat them because going in, they thought they were going to win and, you know, girl power.”
Vences is actually a part of the Advanced Wood Shop class, not the ACE Academy. It was Vence’s first time building a full wall.
She says, “It was a very fun experience. It was our first time, and we all got to do something fun and create something interesting together.”
Creason says, “I felt super excited because it wasn’t something I was used to, so it was more of a learning experience. Coming out of winning, especially beating the overconfident boys, was definitely the highlight of it all.”
Balanzar-Salgado says, “The event was very fun, and it helped me test my skills. I liked collaborating with the other girls, and it was just very exciting.”
When competing, Balanzar says she learned “the importance of accuracy and position of the way things are supposed to be laid out.”
Megan Yang
Megan Yang ('24) is in her 4th year of Journalism. She is a writer and editor for the News section and enjoys writing for the Redwood Gigantea.
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