TCNJ

32 The College of New Jersey Magazine The home's journey from a parking lot concept to a finished house was guided by TCNJ signposts several years before it traveled those last 6 miles. Chuck Seipp '01 was the newly arrived assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction in Roxbury in 2016, when the school district decided to poll the community to find a better use for the 2,500 square feet in the high school that had once been home to the defunct auto shop program but had since been given over to the maintenance department for storage. In response, the space was turned into labs for the robotics program and for a new structural design and fabrication program. "Our first half and our second half matched up within three-eighths of an inch," Caccavale says, a professional level of precision, especially for a structure so large built by students so young. "By the early 2000s, skilled trades were moving exclusively to vo-tech schools, but simultaneously, those schools were also becoming selective," Seipp says. "Our goal was not only to expose kids to opportunities that were vocational arts in nature but also to give them a great life skill. You're going to be a homeowner or renter someday. How do you care for the place that you live in?" As for someone to teach the new structural design and fabrication program, the longtime Roxbury wood- working teacher, fittingly named Paul The project was completed with the help of $100,000 in donated materials and 14,120 hours of volunteer work.

• Cover