Wangard Partners (Wangard) and Catalyst Construction’s (Catalyst) collaboration to promote the growth of the built environment has hit another milestone: graduation! The CADRE Yo Pros program promotes awareness of the built environment and is a partnership with Bradley Tech High School, Milwaukee Public Schools’ Career and Technical Education Department, WRTP/BIG STEP and Building Advantage Wisconsin. The new program’s name originated as an acronym standing for its focus markets including: Construction, Architecture, Development, Real Estate and Engineering (CADRE), however it is coincidently synonymous with the actual meaning of the word.

“We are honored to have a been a leader in this inaugural CADRE program. This was a great group of students that showed true interest in actively participating and learning about the many options available to them within the development and building industry. We, and the students had a lot of fun with this program. It’s hard to believe that we have reached graduation. All of us that participated in this program are very proud of the results and the real impact we have made in these students’ lives. We hope to continue this program as we feel very strongly about giving back to help build the next generation of leaders within our industries."

- Wayne Wiertzema, President | Wangard Partners, Inc.

The CADRE Yo Pros program, which officially kicked-off on Thursday, February 11th, has focused on bringing awareness to the many career opportunities available within the commercial real estate, development and construction fields. Curriculum, established by Wangard and Catalyst, in conjunction with WTRP/BIG STEP, centered on the complete development process, from initial site selection and site excavations/foundation work, through construction and into leasing / property management. The program consisted of monthly sessions where the students participated in addition to their normal class workload. The students graduated from the program on Thursday, November 10th, 2016.The initial CADRE Yo Pros program spanned from junior to senior year for the students. Its purpose was to educate students with information and hands-on experience to help them make decisions about career paths within all of the CADRE fields. The CADRE Yo Pros’ classroom has been the Freshwater Plaza development located at the corner of 1st Street and Greenfield Avenue in Walker’s Point. Freshwater Plaza is a 159,500 square foot mixed-use development that broke ground in October of 2015. It’s first apartment units were occupied November 1st, 2016. The development also includes a Cermak Fresh Market, which will enhance the area’s access to higher quality shopping and healthier food choices. Cermak is set to open in the Spring of 2017 along with the first retail tenants (Sprint™, UPS Store™).More CADRE Yo Pros photos are found on the Wangard Partners Facebook page.