When CJ Vargas walks through the front doors of the new ESI Construction Management Building, he isn’t just entering a construction site turned academic facility — he’s walking through a building he helped will into existence, for a program that once gave him a second chance.
Vargas, a 2018 Boise State graduate and now a project manager with the university’s Architectural and Engineering Services (AES) team in Campus Operations, served as the university’s project manager overseeing construction and completion of the ESI Construction Management Building. For Vargas, the assignment was more than a professional milestone; it was a full-circle moment nearly a decade in the making.
An unexpected path to construction
Vargas didn’t set out to become a construction manager. He grew up in San Jose, California, and by the time he was choosing a college, he had visited 13 campuses across five states.
But something about Boise State stuck. Someone had once told him he’d know home the moment he stepped on campus, and on his final campus visit, walking through Boise State and along the Greenbelt, he felt it.
“Yep, this is it,” he remembers thinking.
He arrived at Boise State pursuing mechanical engineering. Once enrolled, though, the degree proved to be a struggle. A conversation with an engineering program advisor changed the trajectory of his college career and, as it turns out, his life. They recognized that he could apply his existing credits toward Construction Management, a degree also rooted in the engineering school. The shift changed everything.
“I went from struggling to excelling,” Vargas said.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management and today, he’s pursuing a Master of Business Administration, with graduation slated for May 2027.
From student intern to project manager
Even before graduating Vargas joined the university as a project management student intern in April 2017, gaining hands-on experience. The university took notice of his work ethic and talent, offering him a full-time position in August 2018, before he had even finished his degree.
Nearly a decade later, when Boise State needed someone to lead construction oversight for the new home of the Construction Management program, Vargas got the call and he enthusiastically stepped up.
“All of my experiences up to that day prepared me for this role,” Vargas said.
Vargas immediately began building relationships across the project’s many stakeholders. He worked closely alongside Anthony Perrenoud, the William H. McMurren Endowed Chair of Construction Management, who served as the critical liaison between industry partners and project funding.
Together, they coordinated with Engineered Structures, Inc. (ESI), the project’s general contractor and namesake donor, along with subcontractors including Andersen Construction, Boise Cascade, and dozens of others, many of whom Vargas describes as lifelong veterans of the construction industry with a shared mission.
“It was amazing to see it all come together,” Vargas said. “The only way we were able to make it happen is by working with people who have grown in the industry and are looking for opportunities to bring the next generation into it.”
An industry investing in itself
The ESI Construction Management Building was funded entirely through donations — the contributions of 200 individual and organizational donors, including 65 industry partners/donors, many of whom Vargas notes will go on to hire graduates of the very program the building now houses.
Boise State’s Construction Management program currently boasts a near perfect job placement rate — a statistic Vargas sees as evidence of an industry actively investing in its own future workforce.
Students building their own future
For Vargas, one of the most meaningful parts of the project has been watching current and former students play direct roles in its construction.
“I cannot thank them enough for all of their help, patience, and can-do attitudes, to pull it off,” Vargas said.
Katey Martinez, a former student intern, and Madi Olds, a current intern, have both been instrumental throughout the project — gaining real-world experience while still enrolled in the very program the building will serve.
“Working with CJ on the ESI CM Building project has truly helped me grow both in knowledge and confidence,” Olds said. “He never hesitates to turn any situation into a teaching moment, and I am grateful for his ongoing mentorship.”
Beyond the blueprint
Outside of his work at Boise State, Vargas devotes time to two nonprofit organizations. For the past three years, he has served as a mentor with the Idaho Chapter of ACE (Architecture, Construction, and Engineering), working with students who show interest in the field, mentorship he’ll soon formalize by joining the chapter’s board.
He also founded and leads the Treasure Valley Historical Railroad Society, a nonprofit born from a lifelong fascination with steam locomotives.
“I was born in the wrong era,” Vargas said. “As far back as I can remember, my parents have called me an old soul.”
Established in 2017, the organization connects a small but dedicated group of southern Idaho enthusiasts to railroad history and a locomotive located in Lakeview Park in Nampa. For Vargas, the appeal isn’t nostalgia alone; it’s the way an antiquated technology still manages to bring people together.
Quiet success
Ask Vargas what drives him, and he doesn’t reach for a grand statement. “Quiet success is my MO,” he said.
He credits his family — his sister, his parents, and his puppy — as the foundation that made his career possible.
As for the building itself, and the program that shaped him, Vargas doesn’t separate the two from his own story.
“This piece of the institution is dedicated to the career I have not only had, but has opened the door to so many people, opportunities and friendships,” he said.
On Oct. 9, Boise State will cut the ribbon on the ESI Construction Management Building. Vargas stands as a living embodiment of what the building represents: a program that took a struggling engineering student and gave him a career, a community, and, nearly ten years later, the opportunity to build a home for the next generation of students who will walk the same path he once did.