While many high school students are busy analyzing literature or conducting chemistry experiments, other juniors and seniors are building something for the community: an affordable home for a local family. From installing sheetrock to taping and painting, these teenagers work side by side with professionals, learning the trade while giving back.
For nearly 30 years, NeighborWorks Great Falls has partnered with Great Falls Public Schools to create these “High School Houses,” which are sold to first-time homebuyers with limited financial resources. The program has a dual mission: to expand
access to affordable housing in the city’s historic neighborhoods, and to equip students with valuable career skills — including hands-on experience working alongside potential future employers. It’s just one way the NeighborWorks network creates homes and builds America. And it’s not the only network organization that participates in the program. NeighborWorks Green Bay is also known for its High School House Program. The programs are one more way of showing how the NeighborWorks network creates homes and builds America.
It takes a lot of collaboration to make this project happen. It begins with an empty lot provided by NeighborWorks Great Falls, a longtime NeighborWorks network organization, and it comes together thanks to the generosity of community partners and the hard work and dedication of the students. A lumber yard donates the door and trim package, the HVAC or plumbing team contributes a water heater — every piece plays a major role in making the initiative sustainable. So does every partner.
The real story isn’t in the materials used to build the house, but in the builders themselves. The course offers real-world experience that opens doors to future careers and serves the wider community in a variety of ways. As a 2023 graduate, AJ Mese shared, “The class made me closer to the community of Great Falls – whether it was helping a neighbor with some yardwork or giving a quick tour of the house or something as major as doing news interviews or speaking at a city council meeting.” The project offers opportunities outside of the course, as well, engaging interior design classes at two different high schools in a competition to put design boards together. The winning class’s vision becomes a reality in everything from the paint color to the kitchen cabinets to the flooring.
Kevin Mellinger, construction project supervisor at NeighborWorks Great Falls, emphasized the ways the class pushes students to discover what they’re capable of. “These kids realize that they're able to do a little bit more than they thought,” he said. “They'll be standing up on scaffolding when it's snowing and 20 degrees and most of them would not be out there if they weren't at the High School House building.” His reflections are echoed by the program’s instructor, Pete Pace, who has taught the course for nearly 15 years. “The students are with me for just shy of two hours every day,” he said, “so you really do see the progression with not only their skills, but just their confidence to try new things.”
AJ recalled a memory from the class that illustrated his own growth: “One day, Mr. Pace let the students build an entire exterior wall without his guidance, so I just naturally took charge, and we finished the wall really quickly. [That experience] helped me be a leader in my job today.” After finishing high school, AJ immediately got a job at Dick Anderson Construction, and since then has moved to South Dakota, taking on a new construction position where his work includes siding, windows installation and roofing.
AJ’s story, while powerful, is not unique. The Southwest Carpenters Union, a longtime partner, frequently hires students right out of high school and program alumni are leaders at many Great Falls employers, from local engineering firms to Malmstrom Airforce Base. “That's what I've seen over and over again,” Pace shared. “These jobs these kids can get from the carpenters union or these other construction companies around here, that is the quickest way for them to get out of generational poverty.”
Each year, the program makes homeownership possible for a local family. Students leave with real-world experience and a sense of accomplishment, and the neighborhood gains something lasting: A new home, a new neighbor, and a tangible investment in the future of Great Falls.
