Women in Construction Week: Megan Rollins
Megan Rollins, a senior construction management major at UA Little Rock, has had her eye on a career in construction ever since she was a child.
“My dad raised me doing construction,” Rollins said. “At 12, I was flipping houses with him. My mom travels constantly for work, so I have those two things instilled in me. This degree allows me to combine my love of construction with the ability to travel.”
While at UA Little Rock, Rollins has worked as a project manager intern at VCC Construction and a project engineer intern at CDI Contractors and been a part of the Society for Women Engineers. An avid traveler, she is also a runway model.
Rollins will graduate in May with an Associate of Science in Construction Science and Bachelor of Science in Construction Management. She already has a job lined up at Whiting-Turner in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that she will start in June following a month-long road trip to celebrate her graduation.
“I am going full time for a commercial construction company,” Rollins said. “I’ll be helping build malls, retirement centers, and hospitals, huge projects all around the country. I found the Whiting-Turner during a job fair on campus. One of my professors, Chris Ray, introduced me to the company.”
Rollins said she owes much of her success to her two roommates, Andrea Vargas and Taylor Carter. The engineering majors have kept Rollins on track through all four years of college. She’s also thankful to her high school teacher, Sharon Stuthard, who served as a mentor while Rollins attended Sylvan Hills High School in Sherwood.
“She taught my engineering classes for three years,” Rollins said. “She was my ultimate best friend in high school. She definitely helped me get interested in construction management and engineering and helped me decide what college to go to. She has helped me grow into the woman I am today.”
Her advice for other female college students in construction-related fields is to be confident in your abilities and to network.
“I would tell other students to network with their male peers,” Rollins said. “You need other people on your team that are around your age to make it through college and to the professional world. You have to be confident in your abilities as a woman and fight off the imposter syndrome. When I was younger, I felt like I had this imposter syndrome where I didn’t feel like I was good enough because I was a woman, and I always had to prove myself.”
