Via Generocity | by Albert Hong, Staff Writer
Building materials company Saint-Gobain has been working with YouthBuild USA since 2010 to provide materials and hands-on job training for students working in YouthBuild Philly’s building trades track.
At the YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School, students are working toward their high school diplomas while simultaneously getting hands-on learning experience outside the classroom and exposure to career options.
But for some of the students involved in the building trades track, one of the four career tracks offered at the local YouthBuild school, they got to use and learn some new skills to improve their own classroom.
Through a partnership between YouthBuild Philadelphia and Saint-Gobain North America, a Malvern-based company that manufactures high-performance building materials, students worked with local contractor Eureka Metal & Glass Services to install a new glass technology called SageGlass into their classroom.
SageGlass, which is one of the technologies developed by Saint-Gobain and is currently installed at the Kimmel Center, helps to prevent glare and overheating, but the whole process of installing the tech is also meant to teach students at YouthBuild about green building.
The opportunity to learn about these kinds of materials, get hands-on experience in learning how to install them and get exposed to environmental building — this is all thanks to the corporate partnership YouthBuild USA has had with Saint-Gobain since 2010.