Dones talked in detail about his $80 million office building and housing project under construction downtown at the corner of San Pablo Avenue and Thomas L. Berkley Way.

Students were attentive as they learned the steps for such an undertaking -- acquiring property, getting an idea about what to build, coming up with a cost-effective design, drawings, construction and management of an occupied building.

"I'm a real estate developer," Dones told the students. "We find property and develop it. You have to know what you want to build, and if you can't come up with the money, you need a new design." Students marveled at drawings for the 11,000-square foot office building, plans for 79 housing units and 280 parking spaces. The work began in November 1999. Dones expects to be finished by November 2005.

"It's important to share advice and wisdom with young people who are thinking about careers," Dones said before he arrived for the class.

Looking on during the classroom presentation was Shonda Scott, a BART executive with the earthquake retrofit department and BART's community liaison for the Future City Competition, which brings young people together with engineer-mentors to build small development models that show skills in concepts and design.

Elmhurst is among other Oakland middle schools -- Edna Brewer, Roosevelt and Kipp Academy -- that BART is sponsoring. Local students will be judged Jan. 8 by BART and city officials in Oakland. The annual Future City engineering competition is set for Jan. 22 in San Francisco.

"Elmhurst seventh- and eighth-graders have been in the Future City competition for the last three years," said Scott who, like Dones, is African American. She invited Dones to Elmhurst because young minorities don't often hear from major developers who are also minorities, and they need role models.

"BART has been a part of the regional competition to encourage youths to seek careers in sciences or engineering and to start thinking about their futures and how they can make a positive impact on society," Scott said.

Elmhurst students taking part in the competition this year are Ronda Nervis, Gabriel Gomez, Mario Gallardo, Keilah Benton, Desiree Cain, Crystal Lincoln and Gabriel Nunez.

"I learned how to plan and build and pay for a building," Cain said.

"It's important to plan for a career," Nunez said.

"It was interesting to learn the steps for models we can design," Gomez said.

Dones also told students he's building windmills for Native Americans in Montana, and that project also includes "finding a buyer for the electricity."

Standing in the rear of science teacher Wallace Peterson's classroom was 26-year-old Clifton Jones, an African-American engineer for Bechtel, who comes to the school twice a week as a mentor.

"I hope to help give a perspective on engineering and city planning," Jones said. "It's good to have them get this type of exposure to engineering early. It helps bring the real world to the classroom."

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