Civil Engineering student builds her career from the ground up
As an intern for the construction company building Summit House at MSU Denver, Claudia Carrillo gets an up-close look at its innovative design.
Claudia Carrillo has concrete and rebar in her blood.
That’s not a medical emergency, but a career calling that spans a generation.
“My dad works in construction. He’s a foreman for a concrete company,” said Carrillo, who expects to graduate this spring from Metropolitan State University of Denver. “He always talks about projects, and I saw how excited he was.”
He passed that excitement along to Carrillo. When she walks across the Commencement stage next month, the degree she collects will be in Civil Engineering Technology.
She’ll already have plenty of work experience under her tool belt, including helping on a project that will transform the lives of future MSU Denver students.
After attending a 2024 campus career fair, she took an internship working on the upgrade of the dining and retail area formerly known as the 16th Street Mall. “I helped out with concrete work and tree planting,” she said.
From there, she interned with PCL Construction and helped build MSU Denver’s first student residence hall. The 12-story Summit House, scheduled to open in 2027, will provide 550 student beds, a new home for the University’s Classroom to Career Hub, and dining and retail space.
MSU Denver President Janine Davidson, Ph.D., called the building, on the north side of campus across from Ball Arena, “the beginning of a transformation” and “a huge step for this University.”
That huge step will have a lasting impact on the campus and future students, but its carbon footprint will be comparatively small. That’s because PCL Construction, the primary contractor, is using a relatively new material called mass timber on the project.
Mass timber is a category of engineered wood products formed by bonding wood layers together to create strong elements for building large-scale structures. It’s considered environmentally beneficial because it stores carbon dioxide rather than emitting it and requires less energy to produce than concrete or steel. In addition, it’s lighter, which reduces foundation requirements, and its components are often prefabricated off-site and arrive ready to assemble, which can reduce construction time and lower labor costs.
Carrillo has spent much of her final semester as a student wearing a hard hat and working with materials that have little resemblance to the hammer, nails and saws many still associate with construction — things like a concrete scope, post-tension slabs and “stair and elevator cores that go from levels one through 12.”
Carrillo said that during concrete pours, “I am doing quality checks, walking with inspectors, checking the rebar placement and concrete forms.”
Now that she knows firsthand what her father enjoys about construction work, the two of them have plenty of material for conversation. “Sometimes even after work we talk about construction,” she said. “That’s all we talk about.”
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For PCL, offering internships to students like Carrillo is part of the company’s commitment to developing the next generation of construction professionals, said Mauricio Ramos, vice president and district manager of PCL’s Denver office. “We recognize the importance of hands-on experience in bridging the gap between classroom learning and real-world experience.”
For Ramos, supporting local talent and fostering a culture of mentorship and continuous learning within project teams is more than good business. It’s personal. “As someone who began my own career as a PCL intern in 2003, I’ve seen firsthand how impactful these opportunities can be in shaping long-term careers and leadership paths,” he said.
Carrillo is going to get even more real-world experience after she graduates. “I got a job offer [from PCL] back in September. I’ll be starting full time after graduation.” She’ll join two other Roadrunner alumni working for PCL on the project.
“I’m just super grateful to PCL for allowing me to have the opportunity to work on this project,” Carrillo said.
She may be about to graduate, but thanks to her work on Summit House, she’s literally leaving a mark on the University.
