Everyday Pioneers: Michael Delia ’20

A fateful campus tour as a high school student led Michael Delia to an internship—and then a dream job in construction management.

Michael Delia was set on scoring his dream job from the moment he set foot on UC’s campus, and even before he was officially a student.

In 2016, Delia, then a highschool senior from Poughquag, New York, visited Utica College for Construction Management Major Discovery Day, an admissions event focused on the CM program. Both his father and grandfather were in construction, says Delia, and he had grown up determined to follow the same career path.

“Since I was a kid, I don’t remember one family dinner where construction wasn’t the topic of conversation,” he recalls.

So on that day at UC, Delia was excited to be paired with Chris Meyer ’79, a construction management alumnus tasked with showing the prospective student around campus. As they toured buildings and talked, Meyer told Delia about his own construction company, Meyer Contracting, located downstate near Delia’s hometown. At the end of the day, as they prepared to say goodbye, Meyer asked if Delia had any more questions for him. He did. He asked for a job.

Surprised and impressed, Meyer delivered. He helped Delia secure an internship at his company that very summer, where he gained real-world experience in construction management months before he’d take his first CM class at UC. In fact, Delia has returned to Meyer Contracting each summer since 2016, and in 2019, Meyer offered Delia a full-time position as an assistant project manager after his grad uation in May 2020.

Says Delia, “I’ve had a great experience there as an intern, so I’m excited to join the team full time.”

Now a senior, Delia has excelled at UC, taking leadership roles in both the Student Contractors Association (SCA) and Student Government Association (SGA). In the spring of 2019, his peers elected him president of the SGA, and he’s spent the first months of his tenure “surround ing myself with good people who want to get things done,” he says. And he’s quick to point out that “good people” aren’t always people who share his views.

“That’s part of a college education—learning to work with people who don’t think like you, but who want to accomplish the same goals.”

For Delia, one of those goals was realized on November 8, when the Veterans Monument and Flagpole, constructed in part by the SCA, was dedicated in front of the Strebel Student Center.

“Both my grandfathers were Marines,” he says. “I’m proud to have played a part in creating a place at UC where we can honor their sacrifice.” (For more on the new Veterans Monument and Flagpole, see page 13.)