Dr. Maria Calahorra-Jimenez speaks at a press conference celebrating $674,000 in donations to Fresno State's Lyles College of Engineering. Calahorra-Jimenez was selected as the Beavers Heavy Civil Construction Faculty Fellow in July 2020.

Correction: A previous version of this story said donations were going to scholarships. The donations are intended to support the faculty position.

Fresno State held a press conference Friday to announce a donation to support faculty positions at Lyles School of Engineering.

The Department of Construction Management at Fresno State celebrated a $500,000 gift from the Beavers Charitable Trust, with additional gifts from DeSilva Gates Construction, Teichert Construction, Kiewit Corporation and Browning Contractors, Inc. — for a total of $674,000.

The gift goes toward an endowed faculty specializing in heavy civil construction to enable the Lyles College of Engineering at Fresno State to better prepare students for jobs in that area. 

Heavy construction involves activities located on or below the surface including excavation, building foundation, construction projects requiring the use of earth moving machinery or equipment and work associated with bridges.

University officials and the Beavers Charitable Trust President Mary Teichert and Executive Director David Woods announced the gift with a celebration and press conference in front of the Engineering East building.

This year, Fresno State celebrates 100 years of engineering education at the university, said Fresno State President Saul Jimenez-Sandoval.

“Fresno State has grown with the Fresno region together and the Fresno region is what it is because of Fresno State,” Jimenez-Sandoval said. “Our [engineering] programs are nationally accredited and align directly with the needs of industry.”

Jimenez-Sandoval said that the school’s graduating students are always in great demand, especially construction management graduating students, who have enjoyed a near-100% job placement even before they attain their degrees.

He said that these achievements wouldn’t be possible without industry partners in the region, and the Beaver’s Charitable Trust.

“A heartfelt thank you to both of you [Beavers Trust representatives] for your transformational gift and your challenge to other construction management companies to match it,” Jimenez-Sandoval said.

First established in 1977 by the board of directors of Beavers Inc., The Beavers Charitable Trust is a non-profit that awards millions of dollars annually in scholarships to support educational institutions focused on heavy construction.

In 2020, the organization committed to investing $100,000 per year for five years to establish an endowment to fund a faculty position in heavy civil construction at the Lyles College of Engineering.

The position required a faculty member with experience in both industry and academics, and in July 2020, Dr. Maria Calahorra-Jimenez was selected as the Beavers Heavy Civil Construction Faculty Fellow.

Calahorra-Jimenez holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a Ph.D. in engineering science from the Catholic University of Chile. She is currently a professor of heavy civil construction at Fresno State.

Before earning her degrees, she worked for international engineering firms for 14 years, serving as technical office manager, project manager and project engineer in design and construction of more than 100 infrastructure projects in Spain and Chile.

“I am a lover of infrastructure projects and I am a continuous learner,” Calahorra-Jimenez said. “Those are the reasons I pursued this career and why, after working in the industry, I decided to contribute to the improvement of our current construction practices through research and education.”

Gerardo De Jesus Salazar completed a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering with a minor in construction management this fall at Fresno State.

Last year, Salazar received the Lamberson Memorial Scholarship from the Beavers Charitable Trust, which rewards up to $25,000 to an undergraduate student going into the civil engineering construction industry.

 “Having a professor that has worked in the heavy civil industry and could provide expert assistance whenever we had questions about what we were reading and estimating was extremely beneficial,” Salazar said of Calahorra-Jimenez.

Dr. Ram Nunna, dean of Lyles College said that is important to have the next generation of engineers educated at a time when the country is seeing so much construction activity.

“There is so much upcoming work and the civil engineering and construction industries are facing a shortage of a skilled workforce,” Nunna said. “Anything to increase the number of people in civil engineering and construction management is going to help industry today.”

The more high-skilled workers in the Fresno region and the numerous upcoming projects will influence larger corporations to open up offices in the area.