Friday, Sept. 11, 2026
Billed as the biggest family reunion for the M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management, the annual Fall Construction Management Career Fair brought a record 523 students to the Stephen C. O’Connell Center on Thursday.
More than 100 companies attended the career fair, recruiting college students from Rinker, the University of Florida and elsewhere. Nearly 400 recruiters filled the floor, many of them Rinker School graduates who returned to recruit students for their companies.
For some alumni, returning to the career fair is about more than recruiting. It is a chance to come back to where their own careers began.
“I’m here today because I’m a proud Rinker grad,” said Josie Blohm (MSCM ’25), a field engineer with Robins & Morton. “I actually met Robins & Morton at this very career fair. I enjoy coming back and recruiting the next batch of students from Rinker.”
That connection between students and industry is one of the strengths Rinker graduates say continues to set the school apart.
“My education at Rinker prepared me for professional success because the program does a really good job of combining soft skills like good management approaches with technical knowledge,” said Jake Landreneau, a two-time Rinker graduate (BSBC ’11, MBC ’12) and executive vice president of innovation technology at Juneau Construction. “Obviously we can see through this event Rinker does a great job with networking. This business is the balance of interpersonal skills and technical abilities, and Rinker does a really good job of setting someone up for success and understanding how important networking is to our careers in the long term.”
Landreneau said the strength of the Rinker connection is evident within his own company.
“Three of the four leaders in the company are Rinker graduates, and we’ve had a ton of success with Rinker graduates,” he said.
For Rinker Director Dr. Robert Cox, that alumni presence is one of the most meaningful parts of the event. Graduates from decades ago stood alongside recent graduates from the spring semester, returning to recruit for the companies they now lead.
“There are literally alumni from more than 30 years ago to recent graduates from this past (spring) semester here recruiting for their companies,” Cox said. “I told the students to talk to the recruiters like they were part of their family. You want to pursue a company that feels like home for you because you’ll be successful in those types of work environments.”
For Julianna Nickel (BSCM ’22), a senior project engineer who attended the fair as a recruiter for JE Dunn, that sense of connection is part of what made her Rinker experience so valuable.
“I graduated from Rinker in 2022 and it absolutely set me up for success in my career,” Nickel said. “I really believe in the education and networking and opportunities the university provides to meet contractors and create careers for themselves. It has helped me grow.”
The career fair drew students from across UF, including Rinker students, students from other majors and even students from Santa Fe College. Hundreds made their way across the floor in search of internships, career opportunities and connections.
“Today I’m really hoping to get an internship for the networking and experience,” said Adalyn Scherer, a UF freshman.
Davion Belezair, a junior majoring in business administration and minoring in urban and regional development, also arrived with a clear goal.
“I am looking to land my first internship in project management and hope it goes well,” he said. “My friends told me about the event, so I googled it and here I am. This is what it is all about.”
For Rinker graduate student Richard Fagan, the range of opportunities at the event offered a chance to connect with professionals while keeping pace with the industry.
“It has been a pleasure to interact with everyone in the field and update myself on industry trends,” he said.
Robbie Tiedeman (BSBC ’02), a project director with Manhattan Construction and a Rinker graduate, said the relationships students build at events like the career fair can continue throughout their professional lives.
“I can’t say enough about my time as a student at Rinker,” Tiedeman said. “I tell all the students who come through Rinker just how great the relationship building part is. Even people that we hire, I still encourage them to come back to the career fair, walk around and talk to people. I see former classmates here today who are running companies. What a great experience it is to come back and see everybody’s successes.”
Whether welcoming current students or reconnecting with alumni, Cox said he was thrilled to see such a strong turnout.
“It warms my heart to see people I haven’t seen in 20 or 25 years today,” he said. “When you give them a big hug it is like flashing back to remembering when they were students. It is a wonderful experience for everybody.”