Built From the Ground Up: NRCA Seniors Make History on National Stage

First is the word of the year for NRCA seniors Eddie Kubiak and Tully Martinez. The duo was part of the first-ever countywide student chapter of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the first countywide student chapter to win the NAHB Student Competition, and the first student team ever to win the competition in their first year.  

Eddie and Tully were two of the five “Founding Fathers” of NextGEN Builders and the Student Chapter of the Raleigh-Wake County Home Builders Association. Joined by two seniors from Wakefield High School and a junior from St. David’s School, the five launched the group under the mentorship of chapter advisor Mr. Ed Kubiak, who is also Eddie’s father and the founder of NextGEN Builders construction management mentoring group that supports the student chapter. The reward for their hard work and willingness to learn the ins and outs of home building was the national championship in the Secondary Schools – Construction Management Division. 

“We spent six months preparing for it, and we ended up presenting to the judges in Orlando, and that sealed our victory,” Eddie said. 

Their first-place finish in the NAHB Student Competition, held during the 2026 NAHB International Builders' Show in Orlando, Florida, was the culmination of months of industry learning, strategic planning, submittal writing, and presentation preparation.  

In addition to a full schedule of academics and school-related extracurricular activities during the week, Eddie, Tully, and the rest of the team spent evenings and weekends learning about the industry. “We had to go through the process of teaching them home building starting in August. They had to learn from the point of—hey, we’re going to build this house: How do you estimate it? How do you schedule it? What’s the architecture? What’s a proforma look like for the financials for a house?” Mr. Kubiak said.

In December, the team submitted a 40-page project summary. The submittal included team introductions, company overview, build and community overviews, building plans, construction and permit details, estimate overview, cost summary and detail, project proforma, and construction schedule—in short, everything necessary to compete to build homes in the prompt-specified community of Knox Farm in Edmond, Oklahoma.  

“Theoretically, we were building this house for a company. So we had to give all the specific details. We did everything for the house but actually build it,” Tully explained.  

The NextGEN Builders team’s research for the submittal connected them with construction professionals in the build area. Eddie said, “We reached out to dozens of contractors in Oklahoma, called them for numbers and information so that we could use accurate information.” In addition to general contractors, the student builders talked to subcontractors, trades, and manufacturers. 

Their in-person presentation at the NAHB International Builders' Show in mid-February was Shark Tank-style in front of a panel of judges made up of industry professionals. “They have 10 minutes to present, and they hold them to that exact 10 minutes,” Mr. Kubiak said. “After that, they get up to 10 minutes of Q&A from the judges. So that’s where the judges drill in to make sure they really know what they’re talking about. And from there, they all get scored.”  

Of the four awards presented in the student competition—Rookie of the Year, first place, second place, and third place—Mr. Kubiak’s goal for the team was to walk away with newcomer honors, but “the boys just absolutely crushed it, and we won the whole thing."

The national championship was both proof of concept and the birth of a vision for the next generation of builders. In recent years, a combination of slowdowns in home building, a decline of interest in construction and trades among the younger generations, and the expense of running construction programs in schools has led to a shortage of young people interested in construction careers. The quick success of NextGEN Builders and industry buy-in from team members showed that with willing mentors and industry partners, Gen Z is eager to get involved.  

“It’s kind of an older industry, and we need young people, and that’s why we got involved. And Mr. Kubiak didn’t have to, but he reached out to us, and he got us involved, and we did this project, and we won first place,” Tully explained.  

The future is bright for the countywide student chapter of the Raleigh-Wake HBA, and the “Founding Fathers” and their advisor hope to see more chapters established in North Carolina and throughout the US. Eddie said, “This win brought a lot of attention to the Wake County student chapter. We’ve had a lot of people wanting to join since the win, which is big for us.” 

The win is big for high school student chapters, and it’s big for Eddie and Tully, too. Both seniors will attend East Carolina University next year with plans to study construction management.  

Eddie said that the connections they were able to make during the International Builders’ Show have already been foundational to their time at ECU. “We made a bunch of connections with the ECU team and a bunch of big names in construction in Greenville, and so we plan to use those connections to work our way up in the industry,” he said. The soft skills and networking they learned in the NextGEN Builders program are already paying off for the students involved.  

As Eddie and Tully wrap up their time in high school, they are eager to move to the next phase of home building—dream-building. “I want to get into home building because home building is part of the American dream. And building a home for somebody—and my dad’s always explained this to me—that’s how I’ve grown to love construction,” Eddie said. Together, Eddie and Tully are turning a first-of-its-kind experience into a foundation for lifelong careers, one that’s built on hard work, collaboration, and a shared commitment to shaping the future of home building.