NRMCA Producer Member Takes Lead in Educating CIM Program Students

In the spare time he has between flipping parking lots to concrete, Silvi Concrete Director of Concrete Promotion/Sales Zach Rich is moonlighting as a professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology for the Concrete Industry Management (CIM) Program. CIM is designed to train and educate students in the concrete industry by exposing them to a multidisciplinary program which draws on management and technology to produce well-rounded and employable graduates. The program aims at producing graduates grounded in the basics of concrete's production techniques and its many construction applications.

"These kids are so lucky to have a professional like Zach mentoring them," said NRMCA Senior Director, National Resources, Doug O’Neill. "He’s giving them real world knowledge and an opportunity to learn firsthand how the concrete industry works."

Students are given the chance to visit Silvi's concrete and aggregate plants to spend a few days with someone whose job they’ve expressed interest in, such as sales, dispatch, technical service, among many others. O'Neill noted that Rich has made connections with industry experts to visit the classroom and give students a taste of what types of jobs await them within the concrete industry. Speakers have come into the classroom to talk about tilt-up construction, admixtures and working for a general contractor. Most recently, O’Neill was invited in to discuss concrete promotion as a career along with introducing them to NRMCA and all the many resources they might take advantage of once they join the industry.

"As hard as it is to believe, not one of Zach’s students expressed interest in becoming a concrete promoter, mainly because it never even crossed their minds that there was such a thing," O'Neill said. "Zach’s mission to expose these students to all aspects of the concrete industry, including associations like NRMCA, will certainly benefit them and our industry as well."

For more information, contact Doug O'Neill at doneill@nrmca.org.