SEU’s Student Activities Center received a major lighting renovation this summer, thanks to the SEU School of Trades. The Student Activities Center serves as one of the main fitness hubs on campus, housing conditioning equipment as well as arena seating for over 570 guests for SEU Fire Wrestling. The new lighting installation for the gym was managed and completed by SEU student workers and students from the SEU Trades program.
Experiential Learning in Action
This project provided the perfect opportunity to address an important need on campus while also fostering the type of hands-on learning experience that the SEU Trades program highlights. It also allowed the university to save thousands of dollars that would have been spent on this project through an external electrical contractor.
The installation was completed in-house in July 2026 by a team of student workers, led by fellow trades student Abraham JeanLouis, who is studying Electrical Technician Services. This team coordinated the entire process, from the planning to the execution. As with any project, it was essential to coordinate responsibilities, ensure that all safety requirements were met, and have the flexibility to adapt with any challenges that arose each day. This adaptability is what makes experiential learning so valuable.
As Michael Alderman, Executive Director of SEU Facilities Management Operations and professor of SEU Trades and Academic Learning, explained, “the workplace rarely presents situations exactly as they appear in a textbook.”
About the SEU School of Trades
The SEU School of Trades offers experiential degree programs that allow students to pursue training in specific trades — including Electrical Technician, Plumbing Technician, HVAC Technician, Project Management, and Construction Technology — while earning their degrees at the same time. This combination allows students to bridge the gap between coursework and real workplace application. Students are trained to meet industry needs through hands-on learning opportunities coupled with a Christ-centered degree curriculum.
What sets the SEU Trades program apart is its unique focus on practical skills and thoughtful education, as well as professional development from a Christian perspective. Students are not only trained in their specific field but are also given tools to succeed in the workplace through development of leadership skills, work ethic, and character. The curriculum blends seamlessly with supervised work experience, as the classroom instruction provides the technical foundation which is then applied to real projects and facilities.
Alderman explains that skilled trades are more than just occupations, but they are “meaningful professions through which students can serve people, strengthen communities, solve practical problems, and honor God through the quality and integrity of their work.”
Through the Student Activities Center lighting installation project, the SEU Trades students were able to gain experience to support the knowledge they have built in their courses. Their skills were not simply put to the test in a classroom setting, but were applied in an impactful way that will benefit the SEU community for many years to come.
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