Alec Jobbins is our first place winner and will be awarded a $10,000 scholarship by CFMA Silicon Valley. Alec will start his junior this at U. C. Berkeley this fall, where he is pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. He is a member of Cal’s Formula Race Team aerodynamic subsystem. His time at Cal has included spending “countless” hours in Jacobs Hall, Berkeley’s hub for design innovation. There, he has worked in the advanced prototyping lab with its high-end 3D printers. He is a member of Sigma Alpha Pi.

Alec came to Cal from South Tahoe High School, where he graduated first in his class with a GPA of 4.767. His bio wouldn’t be complete without mentioning his life’s passion and accomplishments in Alpine ski racing. He is a four-time junior Olympian and state champion in slalom skiing. (Yes, he won some of those awards while excelling in high school.) It seems he continues with his skiing, but also has been a captain of Cal’s intramural soccer team.

Alec has devoted many hundreds of hours to community service over the past five years, including for Barton Outpatient Physical Therapy, Key Club, the National Honor Society, METAvivor Cancer Research Fundraising, the Boys & Girls Club, U.S. Forest Service, and other organizations.

Ashton Politz is entering her senior year at Santa Clara University, where she will obtain a degree in civil engineering. A former resident of New Orleans, Ashton was displaced at the age of 8 by Hurricane Katrina. Learning years later of the deficiencies in the levee system, she decided that a career in engineering would allow her to help avoid catastrophes such as the one she and so many others endured.

Ashton has interned for Burk-Kleinpeter, a civil engineering firm in New Orleans, where she continued to learn about the difficulty of water drainage in South Louisiana. More locally, she spent the past two summers interning for McCarthy Building Companies, in San Jose. At McCarthy, she worked in the preconstruction department, and entered the magical world of construction budgeting. She has twice competed in the AGC Construction Competition in Reno, Nevada, last year as the cost estimator for the design build team, and this year for the heavy civil team. Ashton already has her LEED Green Associate accreditation.

Ashton expects one day to head her own construction firm, and possibly open a division for McCarthy in New Orleans.

Jack Codiga is entering his senior year at Santa Clara University where he is pursuing studies in the areas of banking, real estate, and construction project development. This summer he has an internship at Kidder Matthews Commercial Real Estate. At the age of 20, Jack already personifies the entrepreneurial spirit. In his “spare time,” he has hired two engineers and attorneys to help him finish a patent for a hardware tool which he plans to market and sell. Jack has pursued these interests while holding leadership positions at his business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi of which he is president, including vice-president of scholarships and awards.

This is Keenan Brekke’s fourth scholarship award from CFMA SV. Keenan has maintained an excellent grade point average at California Polytechnical Institute at San Louis Obispo, where he is majoring in construction management, and minoring in real estate development. He continues to immerse himself in the construction industry. He has spent his summers working for various construction firms, including Shimmick, Nibbi, Webcor, and Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction. He also has worked in the past for his father’s company, Brekke Brothers Construction, Ken Jara Plumbing, and Kitchen 388.

CFMA SV congratulates Keenan for maintaining a regular spot on the Dean’s List at Cal Poly, in addition to his many contemporaneous undertakings. Most recently, as a board member of a NECA student chapter, he was part of a team that raised funds, planned, and completed a trip to the Amazon Rain Forest. In Ecuador, he and his team worked on photovoltaic-powered water pump systems for indigenous tribal jungle communities. Keenan also has competed on 3 national competition teams and is the Captain of the Concrete Solutions Team. While a member of the Electrical Team, the team won first place at the 2016 Associated Schools of Construction National Competition in Chicago. While a member of the Cal Poly Residential Team, he and his team won third place at the 2017 National Association of Home Builders Competition in Orlando.

Keenan is now completing his studies while participating in an international construction management program in Prague, Czech Republic.