Twelve-year-old Annabelle Brislin is pretty sure she wants to be a professional soccer player when she grows up. But this week, she poured concrete.
At FORGE Construction Camp for Girls, Brislin and other campers have spent every day since Monday talking to skilled trade professionals, touring construction sites and learning hands-on skills like plumbing and roofing.
Brislin told The Dispatch that even if she does become a soccer player, she will still use the skills she’s learned at camp throughout her life.
“I wanted to do the camp because I wanted to try something new,” she said. “This is something you can use for the rest of your life — all these resources. You never know when something falls apart and you have to build it back together.”
As the girls have learned different construction-related skills, like reading a tape measure or pouring concrete, they are also exposed to different career paths in construction.
“We’re just trying to give these girls those hands-on experiences to see if there’s something that they want to do,” FORGE Executive Director Melinda Lowe told The Dispatch. “… We’re teaching them life skills. This is something that they can use to help their parents around the house or when they get older, they won’t have to call a plumber to come in and fix a leaky pipe.”
FORGE, a collective of local construction companies that aims to increase vocational training, selected 12 students from local private and public schools to attend the inaugural camp.
Each day the girls take on a different construction project with the end goal of building a selfie station. They also have the opportunity to learn directly from professionals in the industry through discussions and hands-on activities.
The idea, Lowe said, is to create a space for girls to explore the male-dominated industry and learn what careers they are interested in.
“We have found that there are a lot of these girls who are interested … and they didn’t realize there are others like them,” she said. “So we’re just trying to show them that female, hardworking, boss women can go in and do this.”
The campers have learned how to read blueprints, do plumbing and electrical wiring and hang drywall. Wednesday they visited an active construction site at Mississippi State to see work in action.
Lakyn Stuart, a 13-year-old from Grace Christian School in Louisville, started the camp with an interest in carpentry. She said every new skill she learned at camp will help her be more independent.
“It makes me feel accomplished,” she said. “It makes me feel smart because I can say, ‘Hey I know how to do this.’ I don’t need somebody to do it for me.”
While she’s learned a lot about construction, Brislin said she’s also learned a lot about herself at the camp.
“I didn’t really know that I could do this kind of stuff, and so it was really a learning experience about myself too,” she said. “You’ve got to be really focused and patient with yourself. I feel like you can learn a lot through this, and you can go a long way.”
Those moments — when campers realize they can do it on their own — are Lowe’s favorite parts.
“I just love to see those lightbulbs go off and the pride they have in accomplishing whatever it might be that they’re working on,” she said. “They’re really working to accomplish something awesome.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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