ABOUT NCI
THE VISION
The highest intention for National Construction Institute (NCI) is to provide an attainable post-secondary education option that meets the market demand for a career readiness and employment pathway for a large portion of our underserved workforce.
THE FOUNDER & CEO
David Hicks
David grew up poor in 1960’s San Francisco. His parents were young, uneducated and unprepared for their adult responsibilities. Frustration and anger turned into constant arguments and physical violence. His father left them with no viable means of support and David was tasked with being very resourceful and responsible at age 6. Welfare, subsidized housing and always a new school meant having to fight to survive everywhere he went. With a painful awareness of the harsh world around him, street smarts and a violent temper became natural and essential. Childhood was over far too soon.
In an effort to escape the bad inner city influences, the family moved to the upper-middle class SF Bay Area peninsula. David was that same poor, angry street rat and found plenty of trouble in this new sub-urban environment. After several incidents and arrests, David was remanded to a juvenile detention center and finally kicked out of the house at age 16. Being on his own created more opportunities to find trouble, make bad choices and further develop an angry discontent with an unjust world. Good choices are a luxury not afforded to angry people trying to survive.
The only reason David did not end up dead or in prison was the good fortune to have connected with a few kind and patient mentors who took an interest in an angry punk kid. One of them gave that young kid a much needed job as an apprentice in a cabinet shop and introduced him to what would become his lifelong career. David designed, engineered and built a passive solar home from the ground up in 1980 and is a successful and highly respected Design/Build General Contractor and Real Estate Developer in California and Colorado to date.
Without the help of some exceptional mentors choosing to spend their invaluable time with him, David would not have survived his own self-destructive anger. He would not have been encouraged to try harder or afforded the opportunity to safely fail and learn and heal and grow up. It is in honor of these fine mentors and the sacred cycle of giving back what was given to him that created the mission and vision of The National Construction Institute and the Building Futures socially conscious economic development plan.