Tiny Homes Built By Students Granite Construction Gives $50,000 To Support Work Experience

Did you know students in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District are building tiny homes?

They are in the building and construction trades pathway in Career Technical Education, a program of career exploration and work-based learning.

Tiny homes are increasingly considered a potential solution to housing needs, from sheltering disaster victims to creating permanent communities.

In March, Granite Construction, a $3 billion company headquartered in Watsonville, donated $50,000 to the Pajaro Valley Education Foundation, specifically for students in the building and construction trades pathway.

Ashley Stinson, Granite’s VP of risk management and chair of its Corporate Charitable Contributions Committee, said, “Today’s students will play a vital role in the skilled, educated workforce of the future, and in the economic health and wellbeing of our communities.”

Dusten Dennis, a teacher in the building and construction trades CTE pathway who also teaches AP computer science, said it is extremely meaningful for community partners like Granite to support such learning opportunities.

“It has an incredible positive, synergistic effect on our community when

Granite is able to help our students by supporting a hands-on project such as building a tiny house,” Dennis said. “Many of my students expressed it was the highlight of their year, that they got to learn from the experience and were able to contribute to such a large and important project.”

Offered at Watsonville High and Aptos High, the building and construction trades courses are among 26 CTE pathways throughout the Pajaro Valley district’s high schools, ranging from biotechnology and computer science to graphic design and sustainable agriculture.

More than 3,200 students in CTE gain work and life skills while taking CTE courses where they can earn college credits while in high school.

These career-oriented courses advance student readiness whether they plan to pursue higher education, enter a training program, or go straight into the workforce.

Granite also created a paid summer internship based in Watsonville for a PVUSD student or 2023 PVUSD graduate.

One recipient, Watsonville High graduate Robert Caput, was a freshman when he first heard about the building and construction trades pathway.

“High School Construction” page 9