COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Students at Rudder High School are putting down their schoolbooks and picking up construction materials to transform a school bus into a mobile library.
Donald Brown a construction technology instructor at Rudder High and the guiding hand for the 20+ students working on this project said it’s been smooth sailing so far.
“It’s basically a self-paced class,” Brown said, “You mess up, we rip it up and we re-do it.”
Caleb Alverez a Junior at Rudder High said when he first heard of the idea, he was very surprised.
“We’re gonna make it for the district, so that’s pretty cool,” Alverez said, “We’re gonna have it throughout generations maybe, hopefully, and it’s gonna be around for a long time and it’s nice to have it for the community for everyone to go to and see it, I thought it was a good idea.”
Alverez, who’s been a student of Brown since his freshman year said he has enjoyed every step of this project but his favorite part is making the bookcases.
“Making them [the bookcases] and shaping them together because it’s a weird shape,” Alverez said, “You have to have a round shape and it’s kind of hard to do and it’s pretty cool to do.”
Jessie Caldron, also a junior at Rudder said even though this is his first time taking Browns’ class, he’s blown away.
“I never thought we were going to get an opportunity to do something like this and it’s actually pretty good,” Caldron said.
Brown said his students like doing all sorts of projects, just if they can work on them inside the shop.
“I get more participation from them and I like to see the smile on their face when they can see they’re making a difference, not just for me but they’re doing it for their community and that’s what I like about it,” Brown said.