Construction management grad has strong foundation in industry
- Rick Weber
- Student success
- Contributors: James Greco, Photos
5 – minute read
Growing up in Immokalee, Alexis Figueroa-Baltazar would visit construction sites with his father, Tano Figueroa, who installed tile for a flooring company. In ninth grade, he started working alongside his father, doing small tasks, until he turned 16 and fully immersed himself. To help financially support his family, Figueroa-Baltazar worked every holiday break and most Saturdays, and even did landscaping on Sundays.
“I was inspired and motivated by the superintendents I worked with — they told me I could do so much more,” he says. “That pushed me to believe I could go beyond the labor side. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but it simply wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”
And so, Figueroa-Baltazar found his path to Florida Gulf Coast University and the bachelor’s degree in construction management he received this spring. “Having been in the industry for so long, it just feels like it was meant to be.”
His FGCU career is a testament to meticulous attention to detail, a ravenous appetite for learning, the search for impactful mentors and a desire for cutting-edge qualities that would set him apart. Figueroa-Baltazar was named the 2026 U.A Whitaker College of Engineering Undergraduate Student of the Year.
After fielding multiple job offers this spring, he accepted a position as a project engineer at Suffolk Construction, where he starts in July.
But he wants more. Figueroa-Baltazar plans to pursue a master’s degree in civil engineering with a concentration in construction management at FGCU while working.
“My goal is to grow through the superintendent route, learning from every trade partner and team I work alongside, and developing the kind of deep field knowledge that separates good construction professionals from great ones,” he says. “I want to eventually reach a point where I am leading major projects, mentoring the next generation of construction professionals and sharing the methods and lessons I have built along the way. The Southwest Florida community and FGCU have shaped who I am, and I want the work I do to give something back to it.”
Winning leadership skills
Figueroa-Baltazar’s star began to ascend when he captained FGCU’s team in the 2025 Associated Builders and Contractors Construction Management Competition. The group delivered a bid proposal for a $68-million, LEED-certified health hub based on a plan he created independently.
The team earned first place in quality control, beating 34 university teams from across the country.
“It was an impactful win because it led to the best overall team performance FGCU has ever had in that competition,” Figueroa-Baltazar says. “This achievement elevated my name within the industry and demonstrated that I could produce work that outperforms major institutions with far more resources and support.
“What made it even more meaningful is that it was my first competition and my first real exposure to commercial construction. Prior to that, all my internship experiences had been residential. I learned as I went, and the result spoke for itself. I received significant internship interest in the aftermath, and it pushed me to work harder and keep building my name.”
In 2026, Figueroa-Baltazar led the team on an even larger project — a simulated bid for a $377-million, 686,000-square-foot, 26-story Hyatt Regency in Salt Lake City, where he completed the full proposal narrative, project schedule, estimate, site logistics and quality and safety plans. His team finished fifth in quality control, eighth in safety and 12th in project management out of 30 national university teams.
Making the most of opportunities
On the research side, Figueroa-Baltazar has been a Work in Scholarly and Experiential Research (WiSER) research assistant for his mentor, Anh Chau, since 2023, contributing to three conference papers covering artificial intelligence in construction, construction safety and specialty contractors. He presented work at the 2024 Associated Schools of Construction’s International Conference in Auburn, Alabama, and the American Society of Civil Engineers’ International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering in New Orleans in 2025. His journey has been supported by the Lennar Fellows Scholarship Program.
When he thinks about his success at FGCU, his mind clicks back to his teen days on construction sites with his dad.
“While most students arrived at FGCU learning about construction for the first time, I had already been living it,” Figueroa-Baltazar says. “That experience built a work ethic and an understanding of the industry that no classroom can teach. The passion has always been there, and that passion has driven me to pursue every opportunity this program offered, whether I was ready for it or not.
Professionally, Figueroa-Baltazar wants his name to mean something when it’s attached to a project — that the project is being done right.
“I do not just want to improve — I want to be the best,” he said. “I don’t want my children to experience the financial struggles I grew up with. I want them to have more freedom than I did, and to be even more accomplished than me. And if I am honest, I also want the satisfaction of dragging my family past every building I have had a hand in and saying, ‘I helped build that!’”