(L to R) Salim Abouri, Guilhein Cayla, and Mike Wittenberg, CSM Group Project Manager

BONJOUR CSM GROUP.

The Worldwide Web is not an understatement. It really does open the opportunity for worldwide experiences. And this is exactly how four students from the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Toulouse, France, came to experience CSM Group.

Construction-engineering students from the institute entered a competition for a grant that would allow the winners to travel around America visiting pre-selected construction companies for field study and observation. One of their chosen companies was CSM Group, whom they found through an easy web search. The students stuck to the Eastern and Midwestern United States for their tours. Their trip started in New York, then continued through Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan, and back. They kept things pretty lean on their trip; trains and buses for transportation and local campgrounds or hostels for their housing.

“CSM Group was very welcoming. We were amazed by how organized the site visits were and the energy CSM put into them,” said Salim Abouri, National Institute of Applied Sciences student. “With CSM we received tours of different types of construction projects; Kalamazoo seemed to be filled with their work.”

Oh, the places you will go!

CSM Project Engineer Brad Laackman was one of the “official” tour guides for the students. “It was a great experience for me and for them. I feel it was invaluable to their future in the construction world. Mentally breaking out of the one-country mentality can only bring about open-mindedness and situational flexibility.”

Laackman and the students walked the project sites of Otsego Public Schools and Bronson Methodist Hospital. The students also visited CSM’s project at WMU’s Richmond Center for Visual Arts, and CSM arranged for them to meet with the Chair of the Construction Engineering Department at Western Michigan University, Dr. Osama Abudayyeh, Ph.D, PE. This was done to show them how projects are run differently. For instance, the project at Bronson is unique because there are patients in the same building CSM is renovating. This requires extra planning and preparation. “We still have some time to decide what we want to do after we complete our schooling, but after this tour we now know working in the U.S. is not impossible,” said Julien Carles, another National Institute of Applied Sciences student.

The American Way

Construction projects are managed differently in France. Construction management and general contractor firms don’t seem to exist according to the students. And American techniques and work ethics vary from their own country.

“The most important thing we observed was the spirit of American work. Americans seemed very proud of their work and have the ambition to succeed,” continued Salim. “In France, with our desire of equality, we don’t reward people for their effort. Employees with the same job have the same wages even if someone shows more motivation than the other. I think this is the most important thing that allows the United States to succeed.”

The students were professional and took the tours seriously. These weren’t students looking for a free trip. They were ready to learn. We’ve seen that attitude before. It’s the type of dedication we get from our employees everyday. Maybe one day we will have an office in Toulouse, France….