NAHBâs second annual HBCU Student Leadership Program brought together 20 students from 10 HBCUs for networking opportunities, leadership development seminars and more throughout this past academic year.
Students from the 2024-25 cohort, recommended by their peers and instructors, traveled to Washington, D.C., in the fall for an immersive experience exploring career paths in residential construction. In the winter, the students went to Las Vegas for the 2025 International Buildersâ Show to learn more from industry professionals and draw inspiration from the latest The New American Home exhibit.
Their added exposure to the industry is already paying off. This summer, two student leaders from this second cohort are taking on internships in residential construction and are eager to expand their home building skills.
Junie Saint Juste, a student at Florida A&M and a participant in this yearâs HBCU Student Leadership Program, loved traveling with her family as a kid to see the open houses in their neighborhood. Though the neighbors lived just blocks away, they spent their day in vastly different interior layouts dictated by their needs and tastes. Residential design and construction got her brain thinking.
âAs I grew up I knew I wanted to do something that excited me and didnât make me feel like âUgh, I have to go to work today,ââ said Saint Juste.
In May, she began her summer-long construction internship with Pulte Group in Orlando.
The road to earning the internship wasnât easy, but along with her impressive resume, Saint Juste credits the connections she made through the Student Leadership Program and through NAHB at the International Buildersâ Show with helping put a face to her application.
âThe cohort helped me practice building relationships with people in the industry and gave me advice about how to conduct yourself when youâre in new environments,â said Saint Juste. âThe most important thing isnât just what you know, itâs about who you know and how you act and respond to people.â
Throughout the summer, Saint Juste will shadow other construction managers and is excited to work across a range of different builds.
Marcus Raynerâs passion for engineering and using his hands to build started when he was a child playing with Legos. One day he wants to turn his Lego dream home builds into a real one of his own â and for others.
Rayner, a student at North Carolina A&T and another one of this yearâs program participants, is spending the summer as a construction intern with True Homes in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Like Saint Juste, Rayner also believes that the interpersonal skills gained through his experience with NAHBâs Student Leadership cohort will help him along the way.
âBeing surrounded around other HBCU students who had similar interests to me helped broaden my thinking and helped me build connections within the small industry of construction,â said Rayner. âI can call five different people right now who can help me with a question, or I can help them.â
In the short term, Rayner hopes to soak in all the knowledge he can with True Homes, then obtain certifications that will help him construct homes for others.
After that, he noted, âI want to be in a leadership position helping other young professionals, too.â