Before JD Stone was teaching students how to manage construction projects, he spent several years building them.
A construction management lecturer at the University of Nebraska at Kearney since 2023, Stone brings experience from hospital, school and university projects to the classroom. His career has included work as a project superintendent and construction designer, giving him firsthand experience with the challenges students will face after graduation.
“My industry experience is exactly what qualifies me to teach my classes now,” Stone said.
He uses that experience to teach courses ranging from construction documents and building systems to scheduling and codes. Stone earned a bachelor’s degree in construction management from UNK in 2012 and is a 2008 graduate of McCook High School.
Why did you decide to attend UNK?
I originally had a scholarship to play football at Chadron State College, but they didn’t have a construction management program, so I chose Kearney instead.
What drew you to construction management?
I originally considered going to school for engineering but since I grew up working on my grandpa’s farm and with my dad in construction, I knew I couldn’t do something that put me at a computer most of the time. I loved the tangible reward of constructing a building, so I chose construction management and have loved it and been passionate about it since.
Talk about your experience in the industry:
While I was still in college, I worked for a home builder, a general contractor and a commercial electrician. I also interned once with JE Dunn Construction McCook and once with Kiewit Building Group in Omaha. They were both great experiences, and I had job offers from both after school, but I chose McCarthy Building Companies in Phoenix, Arizona, because it was the farthest away. My dad is also a superintendent in construction so I wanted to work somewhere where nobody knew who he was and I could do my own thing. Additionally, I wanted to do something challenging and different, and I could find that in Phoenix. I was right because I worked on a $200 million hospital addition and another $80 million hospital on the Apache Indian reservation in that area. They were huge, exciting projects that were so unique.
After three years, I moved back to Nebraska so my wife and I could start our family closer to our extended family. I started with Hausmann Construction as an assistant superintendent at that time and was shortly moved up to project superintendent. I worked on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business building, a few high schools across the state and the Central Nebraska Veterans’ Home in Kearney along with a few other projects as a superintendent. After that, I went to Wilkins ADP to work on the construction designer side of the industry where I acted as the conduit between the owner, contractor and design team while doing many construction site visits for quality and scope inspections. My career had enough variety over the decades that it gave me more experience than most of my peers over the same amount of time.
Why did you return to UNK to teach?
During my career in construction, I had remained in constant contact with the university by being a member of the Industry Advisory Committee and coming back to recruit students for the companies I worked for. When they needed a full-time lecturer, I was asked to apply for the position, which was not something that I would have considered if they hadn’t encouraged me to apply. It has been a great decision, and I am so blessed to have the job I do now.
How does your time in the construction industry benefit you as a teacher?
I only use a textbook for about half my classes because I have enough industry experience to teach directly from that knowledge. A textbook just gets in the way. Of all the classes I teach, there are only three that have a required book, and one of those is a construction codebook. The rest of the classes are taught directly from the material and knowledge I gained while working in the industry.
What careers can students pursue with a construction management degree?
Our graduates typically become project managers or superintendents after starting as project engineers. About 50% go into commercial construction, 25% go into residential construction and the last 25% are split between heavy civil and industrial construction. We also have students who start as safety professionals, estimators, schedulers, virtual design and construction coordinators and even work for designers.
Job placement is currently at 100%. If we could find a way to graduate more students, that number wouldn’t change. Companies are already hiring other UNK College of Business and Technology graduates to fill positions they used to only use construction management alumni for. Starting salaries for our graduates range from about $65,000 to $88,000 per year. The options are plentiful right now.
What sets UNK’s construction management program apart from others?
There are less than 10 construction management programs in the entire country that are part of the business college at their universities. Most are housed in the college of engineering or architecture, which can be fine. But, because we are part of the College of Business and Technology, we get to replace the calculus and engineering classes that they take with business and leadership classes that are much more applicable to graduates who are seeking construction management careers. Also, all our lecturers and professors came from working in the industry before starting at UNK. These things make UNK one of the strongest construction management programs that uniquely prepares students for the work they will be involved with after school is done.
What do you enjoy about your job?
When I became a faculty member, I thought I would miss being able to point to more buildings and say, “I built that.” I do miss that, but I have been surprised by how enjoyable it is to see students I have worked with become successful in their own careers. Seeing that success after they graduate is the best part of my job now.
Share a fun fact about yourself:
My family and I are very involved with Kearney eFree, where I am a church elder. My wife and I also help teach children’s Awana at Hope eFree. Additionally, I really like the outdoors and take a group of guys on a cabin trip and a backpacking trip to the Colorado mountains each summer.
