Clemson University civil engineering alumnus Tom Rochester built a successful company in Charlotte, but when he looks back, what first comes to mind isn’t the projects.
It’s the relationships.
Now retired, Rochester has returned to his alma mater– and he is still putting people first as an inaugural member of the Leadership & Mentoring Network. As part of the program, he is mentoring two junior civil engineering students, Jemal Scarborough and Katie Nunnelley.
“The legacy I want is to make it go viral– that everybody I touch is able to feel the same passion to go out and make other people’s lives better by virtue of offering their time and skills to help the Jemals and Katies of the world,” Rochester said.
The Leadership & Mentoring Network is in the final months of its inaugural year, and organizers said it has been a roaring success.
The network links alumni and industry professionals with sophomores and juniors in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences. In the 10-month program, mentors support mentees in career exploration, transition to industry, goal-setting and personal growth.
Twenty-one mentors have connected with 20 students, mostly undergraduates, in the inaugural year. (Sign up for the network here.)
Jesus M. de la Garza, the school’s director, said the network helps create a more robust alumni base while strengthening talent in the pipeline from academia to industry.
“Alumni and industry leaders are pulling from a deep well of valuable experience to accelerate the personal and professional growth of our students,” de la Garza said. “I’m profoundly grateful to our mentors, staff and students, who are investing their time to make this program as impactful as it can be.”
Scarborough played Division II baseball at Claflin University and transferred to Clemson because he wanted to study civil engineering and then pursue a career as a construction manager. Pairing up with Rochester is helping him navigate the rigors of the degree and build his confidence.
“He has vast experience with not only school but interviews, the workforce and different ways of communicating throughout industry,” Scarborough said. “It helps a lot in terms of my confidence to go forward in my career, because now I have an idea of what to expect.”
While a Clemson student, Rochester studied under the late Robert “PB” Nowack, a professor he credits with shaping both his discipline and professional character. Rochester graduated in 1981, moved to Dallas to begin his career and then returned to the Carolinas to found Southeastern Architectural Systems (SEAS) in 1987.
He built the firm into a successful construction services company before retiring in 2019. Rochester and his wife, Cindy, now live in the Beaufort area and have three grown children.
For Rochester, the network is an opportunity to continue helping shape the next generation of leaders– something he also did at SEAS.
“I was able to cultivate a group of young people and enjoy watching them progress to the point that I was able to turn the business over to them with complete confidence that it would be run better after I left than while I was there,” he said. “My greatest achievement was creating the next generation of difference makers in the construction world.”
Rochester meets with Scarborough and Nunnelley in Clemson once a month, and they keep in touch over email in between. In their meetings, Rochester shares what he has learned about success.
Just a few tips that came up in a half hour: follow up with professors who may be slow to respond, have business cards printed to stand out from the crowd and when responding to a question, ask a clarifying question to give yourself time to think.
Nunnelley said the last time she met with Rochester, he handed her a copy of his memoir, “Best Day Ever: Stories on Finding Joy in the Present.” (Spoiler alert: The best day is every day.)
“Overall, this whole experience has been so rewarding, and I’m so lucky I was paired with Tom,” Nunnelley said. “He’s such a great person, such a great guy.”
If going viral is the goal, it looks like Rochester has another generation of converts ready to carry his passion forward.
