BALTIMORE — Schools in session at Carver Vo-Tech.
It's a class where the students don't mind getting their hands dirty, from gutting the inside of a vacant home, to the cleaning up outside, a house in the 2200 block of Presstman street is their fixer-upper.
"We incorporate them into the tear down, into the actual construction. These are steps that they built in the classroom, so they took the old steps out," said Sterling Hardy.
The Requity program is the brainchild of Hardy.
His dream of working in the trades was shattered when the Carver alum says he couldn't get into an apprenticeship program when he graduated in 2012.
"What was told to me at one point is I can read a diagram, but I can't cut a straight line, so that's what we want the kids to learn, because that's a skill set that they need to have," said Hardy.
So now a group of seniors is doing it all.
"I've learned more masonry, more electrical, carpentry. So, this has taught me around all the trades, how to put insulation in."
"Getting the right measurements and learning the exact type of screws you're supposed to use," said one of the students.
"It's way better because it's more hands on. We get to go out here and build stuff," another student said.
Their Carpentry teacher Greg McDevitt has been in the classroom more than 20 years and has never seen a program quite like this.
"It's not just flipping a house, many houses have been flipped over the years, he's going to keep it and use it as a teaching tool, just like you would use a ruler or a calculator in the classroom, this job is just to give them an opportunity to be outside of the classroom," Mcdevitt said.
The program got off the ground with the help of Michael Rosenband, he's coached football, and baseball but wanted to make some hits off the field. His goal is helping students and the community.
"That's empty, that's vacant. We actually maintain some of the lawns that are vacant," Roseband said.
"We established a non-profit. We realized that we need to attract public and private dollars to set up the right organization to do that to have the funding to develop the house but to invest in the programming, a curriculum to align with Baltimore City vocational program whether its masonry, electrical, marketing, business or accounting," said Roseband.
They're making the Carver house an energy efficient home for a family.
"I like to help other people. That would be a big achievement," a student said.
And through Requity, they're creating a career path for these students.
"Why is that a Carver student who graduates from carpentry with honors isn't a job as an intern, an apprentice," Rosenband said. "What we're doing is taking away those excuses and creating those opportunities, so students have a chance to pursue what they've studied."
"It's really impactful in my life because I've learned a lot from it," a student said. "I can go home and if there's a problem in my house, circuit breaks, I can fix it."
