Photo provided West Virginia Northern Community College students Joseph Hazjer, left, and Antonio Sims, with instructor Patrick Kerns, assist those affected by last summer’s flooding by replacing their furnaces and water heaters.

WHEELING — Students in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning department at West Virginia Northern Community College are getting real-world experience by helping out those who experienced real-world flood losses last summer.

The students are assisting residents by using their learned skills to replace furnaces, water heaters, waterlines and gaslines, as well as doing small electrical work, said John Labriola, program director for the HVAC department at WVNCC.

Labriola explained local churches reached out to the school and asked if students there could be of assistance to homeowners in flood-affected areas.

“The students get to learn how to do things correctly, and we’re helping the community by doing that,” he said.

“We’re not trying to take any work away from local contractors. But they couldn’t do everything and we stepped in to help.”

In total, WVNCC has helped out at three homes since September, “but there are more on the docket,” according to Labriola. He expects more requests will come as homeowners receive the Federal Emergency Management Agency funding due them.

“We will probably be doing those after the Christmas season,” he said.

There are 32 students in the HVAC program at WVNCC, and so far about 20 of them have been able to go to the homes to assist and get real-world experience. The homes are in the Triadelphia, Valley Grove and Elm Grove areas.

Labriola and instructor Patrick Kerns supervised the students while on site. Labriola noted they do seem comfortable while on the job.

“We’ve been surprised as to how well the students have reacted to doing the work,” he said. “They have taken care of the customers and their property. Sometimes it’s a dirty and muddy situation, and you’re trying not to walk on people’s new carpeting or touch their new paint walls.”

Labriola noted the goal of he and Kerns is to get the students “real-life experience” outside of the lab.

“A lot of the students are understanding how important the codes are and following the codes,” he continued. “It’s one thing to teach them how to run a certain size pipe a certain way…. You can explain it in the classroom. But it’s another thing to actually have them do it.

“Properly putting in gas pipes and checking for leaks in someone’s home is a different experience than in the lab.”

Most importantly, the students are learning to take care of the customer’s property, according to Labriola.

“They learn to bring the proper tools, and the small things that have to be done correctly. They are learning to properly talk to customers – what we refer to as soft skills.”