Clayco is supporting the next round of students in the Architectural Engineering Scholarship program at Pennsylvania State University. Sending warm congratulations to the outstanding Clayco Design-Build scholarship recipients – Raida Abdoellah, Nicholas Griffin, Joe Ricci, and Sophie Zheng!
The Clayco Foundation continues to reinforce the Art and Science of Building through our support of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis Fellowship program and its third class of Future Leaders! Congratulations to Linda Holyoke (advancement fellow), Jhané Perdue (artistic fellow), and Jenna Pieper (administrative fellow) for being named the 2022 to 2023 recipients. Pieper and Holyoke are also the first Fellows to join the program from my hometown of St. Louis.
Illumination 2022 Circus of Light was an incredible record-breaking gala for The Clayco Foundation! Through ticket purchases, sponsorships, and the generosity of various donors, we raised a record-breaking $1.1 million to help support the search for a cure for the rare genetic disease RVCL and to help pave the way for cures for all genetic orphan diseases.
Ayana V. Jackson is an American contemporary artist, photographer, and filmmaker who is among the most talented artists working today. She was raised in East Orange, New Jersey, where her family has lived for generations. Jackson’s family dates back to Lawnside, the first Black settlement in New Jersey. Her grandmother, Angenetta Still Jackson, is a descendant of Leah Arthur Jones, a member of the founding family in the region. Jackon’s grandfather, J. Garfield Jackson, was also a significant community member as Essex County's first African American principal, and there is an East Orange public school named after him.
Within Our Walls Construction Inclusion Week is the perfect time to acknowledge Clayco’s commitment to building awareness around the need to improve diversity and inclusion in the construction industry. Our team has committed to these initiatives through Clayco Rising and beyond, aiming to create meaningful change from the ground up and build equitable opportunities and relationships through our partners, minority youth mentorships, charitable foundation, community engagement, and so much more.
Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15th to October 15th and honors the incredible Hispanic Americans who have contributed to building the foundation of the U.S. It’s an important time to understand and appreciate the culture of our Hispanic friends, family, and colleagues who, as of 2021, make up the nation’s largest racial or ethnic minority at 62.6 million of the U.S. population. In the construction industry alone, Latino Americans make up over a third of the workers and are projected to account for 78% of net new workers between 2020 and 2030, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Some of the key choices that we get to make in this life are the things we prioritize, both with our finances and with our energy and efforts.
Over the course of my life, my priorities have shifted immensely, and I now spend a large amount of my time focusing on the work that our foundation is doing, as well as being engaged in impactful community efforts. The majority of the work that we are a part of is aimed at issues directly affecting my family and the Clayco community.