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Alumni in Action: Meg Mochel
“It’s finding the balance of art and science.”
That’s how Meg Mochel, a 2011 graduate of Cherokee Trail High School, describes her job as the pre-construction manager at TDIndustries. The Dallas-based mechanical engineering firm specializes in designing and building HVAC and plumbing projects in large commercial buildings like hotels, hospitals, and stadiums.
As the pre-construction manager, Mochel gets a set of plans and specifications for a new building, and determines what supplies, equipment, and manpower will be needed to build it, and how much that will cost.
“There is the science piece where it’s very technical, very mathematical, working in excel and building an estimate sheet saying, ‘We need this many linear feet of pipe, this many pounds of ductwork, this many pieces of equipment, and it’s going to cost this much,’” Mochel explained. “But then, there’s the art piece of it; What is our strategy to win this project? How do we go about selling that our team is the best team to build this? Is it based on our experience? Is it based on other projects we’ve done? Do we say we’re bringing value because we think we can beat the schedule by doing XYZ or coming up with creative solutions?”
Her work involves millions of dollars (the contracts she works on are typically $5 million or more) along with lots of math and science. Those are fields she fell in love with as a student in Cherry Creek Schools, starting in fourth grade when her family moved from Chicago to Aurora.
“I had so many amazing math and science teachers all the way through school,” she said.
They included Artie Smith, the teacher in her fourth and fifth grade gifted and talented class at Timberline Elementary, and many of her middle school teachers at Challenge School, including Spanish teacher Ms. Hinchey, who took a group of students to Spain, theater teacher Mr. Smith, who took his acting students to New York, and math teacher Rich Morrow, who challenged his students in class and in various math competitions.
“The academics were fantastic and having extracurriculars that helped to build on that and create more of a well-rounded person was such an important piece of my growth and development,” she recalled.
Mochel continued to grow and excel at Cherokee Trail High School, where she played varsity soccer and participated in Model UN, Math Club, and Science Club. She was part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program and her IB physics class led her to the field of engineering.
“I loved math and I was thinking about majoring in math, but I wanted more of the practical application,” Mochel said.
That’s why, after considering colleges across the country, she decided on Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she was an ambassador for the Lyle School of Engineering, joined the rowing team, and found her pathway of purpose through an internship at TDIndustries, the company she works for today. The summer before her senior year in college, she did a “rotational” internship at TDIndustries, where she was supposed to spend a month in each of three departments: engineering, pre-construction, and project management.
“After my month in engineering was up, I was moved to the pre-construction department and I never left,” Mochel said. “They were very short on manpower in pre-construction at that time, so they asked me if I would mind spending the rest of my summer there.”
During that summer, she worked on the pre-construction team for the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta. At the end of her internship, her mentor and supervisor invited her to Atlanta to see the stadium in person. While they were there, he offered her a full-time job as a construction estimator after graduation. She’s been at TDIndustries ever since, earning her master’s degree while working full-time, and moving from construction estimator to pre-construction manager.
Mochel is proud to work for an engineering company that has a good number of female employees, but she says the construction and engineering fields are still very male-dominant.
“I’ve gone to countless meetings where I’m the only woman out of at least 20 people in a room,” she said.
Still, she loves her job and the opportunity to balance art and science on a daily basis. She credits the teachers and staff of Cherry Creek Schools for giving her a foundation on which to build a challenging and rewarding career.
“It’s such a great school district. I had such a great academic basis,” Mochel said. “That is where I got my scholarships to go to university, so that obviously helped, but the academics, and the extracurricular activities, and those real-life experiences, that shaped so much of who I am.”
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Posted 3/21/2023.