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Bill Kowalczyk, construction manager for Portland YouthBuilders, found little to like about high school. As a young man growing up in Dearborn, Mich., he despised the structure and lack of hands-on activity at school. Yet, high school also introduced him to two interests he continues to be passionate about today.

He discovered his love of building things while taking vocational classes like metal and wood shop and mechanical drawing. Kowalczyk also realized he had a role to play in helping to protect the environment.

“I was really sort of concerned about the environment because the river that ran through Dearborn was filled with foul-smelling waste from all the surrounding factories,” he said. “I was in the 11^th grade in 1970, and I did an eight-millimeter movie about pollution in the Detroit area for a social studies class.”

In 1973, Kowalczyk, the oldest of four kids, struck out on a quest to hitchhike cross country to Alaska. In 77 hours, he made it from Boston to Eugene.

“It was wonderful. I really enjoyed meeting people on the road and seeing the country. The United States is an extraordinarily beautiful country,” he said.

Kowalczyk decided to stay in Eugene, and joined a worker-owned forestry contractors’ organization called Hodads. He took a year off in 1977 to earn his certification as a licensed practical nurse and, through the late ’70s and early ’80s, alternated between construction work and nursing, depending on what work was available.

“Working as a floor nurse really reinforced the skills I needed as a contractor, like multi-tasking and adapting to changing conditions,” said Kowalczyk, who was living in Central Washington at the time.

Kowalczyk moved to Portland in 1983 and found work replacing doors at homes that had been broken into. He eventually joined a grout company that specialized in high-end residential remodeling and restoration. By the early ’90s, Kowalczyk said, he was ready for a change.

“I felt like I really wanted to do something that was more meaningful to me with my construction background. I made a shift from high-end construction into affordable housing,” he said.

During his four years as construction manager for Franciscan Enterprise of Oregon, Kowalczyk learned about Portland YouthBuilders while it was in its infancy. The nonprofit organization provides educational, vocational and leadership development programs for low-income young adults.

Kowalczyk worked off and on with Portland YouthBuilders as a private consultant until 2001, when the organization hired him to run its construction department. Since then, Kowalczyk has worked to incorporate eco-friendly design and construction methods as part of its curriculum, and the group built an Earth Advantage home in 2001. Last December, Portland YouthBuilders completed a two-unit townhouse that garnered Gold certification through the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

“One of the highlights of this project was, during our open house, seeing our students be able to be really articulate in their descriptions of the solar hot-water systems,” he said.

Kowalczyk, who has three children with Diane Drum, his wife of 25 years, said his most important work now is to encourage young men and women to strive for bigger possibilities.

“Rather than taking the attitude that we are just a school and using it as an excuse to do the minimum, we use it as a reason to surpass industry standards because we are a teaching and learning institution,” he said.

Who was a mentor who helped shape you into the person you are today? What did that person teach you?

“I find the industry to be really rich with people willing to share their experiences. That’s something that is really remarkable about the industry – it’s very collaborative.”

Tell us something about yourself that most people might not know.

“I can dance a mean polka.”