EVENT · CASE STUDY
Build Your Future Summit
Client
Cerritos College Continuing Education
Role
Senior Strategic Advisor
AT A GLANCE
Client
Cerritos College Continuing Education
Role
Senior Strategic Advisor
Timeline
Feb 2026 – Nov 4, 2026
Team
With the summit lead
Scope
Program design, timing and budget framework, floor plans, creative brief, assets, and email reminders
01
The challenge
Cerritos College Continuing Education had never held an ERiCA Grant summit. The goal was big: get high school students, especially young women, to see the construction trades as a real future and to think about the college's Apprenticeship Program. There was no earlier event to copy, the audience was teenagers, and we had one day to make it stick.
I started the engagement in February 2026, with the summit set for November 4, 2026. After the program, direction, timeline and event materials were handed off, ongoing project management and last-minute production tightening sat outside my original scope, and that work still needed an owner. Presentation slides that should have been consolidated and briefed for the internal team weren’t in place yet. The day still had to run cleanly.
02
My role
I was Senior Strategic Advisor, working with the summit lead. I was brought in to design the program, build the timing framework, outline next steps, provided a creative brief, develop the print assets, and the email reminders pre and post event. As the day got closer, I stepped in beyond my original scope. I took on the run-of-show, pulled the presentation slides together, and addressed any pivots and changes that occurred day-of.
03
The approach.
01
Designed for students.
I built the program around the questions students actually have: what the pay is like, what a job site feels like, and how a career fits with the rest of their life.
03
Aligned deliverables.
I wrote the creative brief and managed the creative asset deliverables, along with email reminders for registered students.
02
A timing framework.
I built a timing framework that ran from the February start through the single-day summit on November 4, 2026, so the program and creative had a realistic path to the event.
04
Check-ins.
I stayed close to the work as it moved. When last-minute production tightening was needed, I could step in, take the run of show, and brief the slides without losing the thread.
04
Highlights
60% TURNOUT
60 OF 100 REGISTERED
7 CAREER TOPICS
STUDENTS ENGAGED WITH
POSITIVE FEEDBACK
FROM DAS & STUDENTS
FIRST-EVER
ERiCA Grant
05
The outcome
About 60 high school students showed up, a 60% turnout from registration. They didn't just sit through it. They asked questions about getting into construction, about balancing family life, and about pay and benefits. They also tried the VR lab and dug into worksite culture, wellness, and planning for the future.
Students left with positive feedback. So did the representatives from the Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS), the agency that distributes the ERiCA Grant funding. For a first-year program, that's what matters most: the students were engaged, and the funders saw the program working.