Alumni Spotlight: Justin Howell, One of the Bearkats Behind Bowers

Alumni Spotlight: Justin Howell, One of the Bearkats Behind Bowers

Justin Howell will be the first to tell you that his degree in interdisciplinary agriculture centered on animal science and wildlife ecology doesn’t seem to fit his job as project superintendent for the Bowers Stadium press box renovation project. But the Sam Houston State University alumnus will be twice as quick to say, “A lot of the things you learn by attending college really translate to the working world.”

Before his return to campus to manage the day-to-day operations involved in giving the press box a Conference USA-ready upgrade, Howell first came to SHSU’s Huntsville campus on a tour with his parents. After looking at other college options around the state, Howell decided to carry on his parents’ Bearkat legacy and attend SHSU.

“Some of those other places, they’re just so big. I had over a thousand kids in my graduating class in high school, and I wanted a more intimate, small-town feel,” Howell said. “We toured some classes, saw some settings and everything was a little bit more condensed, a little bit more intimate. It felt like we could get more done.”

It was that get-it-done attitude that served him well throughout his college career and helped him secure a position with HOAR Construction. A construction company with over 85 years of experience, HOAR has partnered with SHSU on projects such as the Mafrige Field House in Bowers Stadium and the parking garage at the College of Osteopathic Medicine in Conroe. Howell’s demonstration of the Bearkat work ethic impressed leaders at the construction company, and in the past five years of his nine-year tenure, he has seen the number of SHSU graduates on the payroll increase.

“We’ve hired a lot of Bearkats over the years, and we’ve had great success with them. Even if they don’t have the industry knowledge or weren’t a construction major coming in, we can teach people construction, what we can’t teach is work ethic,” Howell said. “And when we hire Sam Houston graduates, that work ethic is what we see.”

That work ethic was supercharged for those working on the Bowers press box project, as around seven alums joined Howell in revamping one of the largest features of Bowers Stadium. Among them were a few interns from the university, one of which Howell shared has since been hired by HOAR and set onto another project. But for those who remained on the project in Huntsville, they were excited by the opportunity to return to complete such a high-visibility project.

“Having something this big, this visible and this impactful really fired us up. We were ready to go back on the main campus, right where everybody’s watching you every day. It’s cool to have something that is so visible that if you drive anywhere on campus, you’re going to see the building as you drive,” Howell said.  

With the project wrapping up and the Bearkats’ new season around the corner, Howell will be off to coordinate the construction of another project, ensuring the job is done well, safely and with smooth lines of communication between project owners, designers and the trade partners on site.

“Being able to take the vision that Sam Houston and the architect had on paper, then making those really mesh and jive to produce a product that the students, faculty and fans would be proud of was something that we were most excited about,” Howell said. “Taking certain aspects of the plans and make them work to be efficient for the end user while still having that esthetic feel was challenging at times but made the end product fit the vision university leaders had for the building.”