Mary Choquette ’99 beams with pride tinged with nostalgia as she introduces Laura Fountain ’18, who is working as the lead accountant for Gilbane Building Co.’s construction of Bryant’s new fieldhouse, slated to open this fall.

It’s a bit of deja vu for Choquette, vice president and controller of Gilbane’s New England Division, who did the same job when she was a recent Bryant graduate back in 2001, as the George E. Bello Center for Information and Technology was being built. 

“This is a Bryant alum who's doing an amazing job,” Choquette says about Fountain before connecting the Newport, Rhode Island, native’s career path to her own. 

“I was two years into my career at Gilbane, and they knew I was a Bryant grad,” Choquette recalls. “When we won the Bello project, I was told there was no other accountant in New England better suited for this project than me. Fast forward 24 years, we’re interviewing Laura, and I told her the next project we win for Bryant, she will be the accountant on site.”

True to her word, Choquette handed the hard hat to Fountain when Gilbane was selected in February 2024 to build the three-story, 45,000-square-foot fieldhouse at the David M. '85 and Terry Beirne Stadium Complex. 

“If you told me in college that I would be walking around a construction site in a vest, I wouldn’t have believed it,” says Fountain. “Everyone around me talked about public accounting, so I felt like that was the only option.” 

“If you told me in college that I would be walking around a construction site in a vest, I wouldn’t have believed it."

Fountain’s first job out of college, in fact, was in public accounting, which she did for three years before the opportunity at Gilbane came up. 

Choquette recalls Fountain impressing her as being adaptable as well as personable. “You don't need an accounting degree to work as a project accountant,” she says. “Bryant prepares you in the sense that the university makes you resourceful, to ask once and not go back and ask again.”

Fountain says all her jobs, including the fieldhouse project, have involved a high level of collaboration. “At Bryant, every class I took had group projects and really taught me how to be a team player,” she says.

At Gilbane, Fountain periodically trades her desk for a seat inside a trailer within the fences of the fieldhouse construction site. The hands-on environment not only gets her out of the office but allows her to gain first-hand knowledge of the project.

“What I appreciate most is the superintendent will walk me around for an hour every week so I can see what's going on,” she says. “It’s one thing to sit in our Providence office and see the invoices come in from the trades. It's another to get to see what's happening on site, so I can connect the two.”

Fountain, an Accounting and Applied Analytics double major at Bryant, is responsible for all financial aspects of the fieldhouse project, including budgeting, forecasting, and billing. 

“Along with that, I deal with the project manager, engineers and superintendents to make sure all are aligned with the financial forecast I produce,” she says. “I’ve had to learn this whole new construction industry language.”

Fountain and Choquette say the fieldhouse, when completed, will enhance the Bryant experience for athletes and fans alike. Designed to support Bryant’s DI football, soccer, and lacrosse programs, the building will provide a range of facilities, including modern locker rooms, physical therapy areas, club level seating and concessions, press boxes, and coaches’ viewing areas. 

Fountain says she loves being part of such a major campus expansion. 

"It's amazing to see the fieldhouse get built from the ground up,” she says. “Having something new and shiny on campus is exciting and helps build community and a sense of pride about Bryant.”