The whir of power drills and circular saws, the sizzle and pop of welding and the bang of a hammer were all part of the morning soundtrack for a group of eighth grade girls from the Sioux Falls area.
That’s because they were trying their hands at power tools at the Career and Technical Education Academy on Thursday morning as part of a “Pizza, Pop and Power tools” event organized by the Associated General Contractors of South Dakota, Sioux Falls School District and local women in the construction industry.
It’s part of the Women in Construction Week this year, observed March 6-12, backed by the National Association of Women in Construction.
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Students could learn and work with local role models in the industry and try their hands at welding, carpentry, power tools, heavy equipment demonstrations, engineering, concrete work and more.
There was also a discussion and question-and-answer session with industry experts over lunch, which was pizza and pop catered by CTE Academy students in the culinary arts class.
“You’re going to learn what it takes to build roadways and bridges, schools and hospitals, and lots of other amazing projects that our people do every day,” Margaret Pennock, director of workforce development for the Associated General Contractors of South Dakota, told the group.
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Pennock and other volunteers from local construction groups, heating and plumbing, and even the Department of Labor and Regulation helped put on the event.
They showed the students how to work everything from drills to welding equipment, making butterfly welcome signs and nail art in the process, which the girls could take home to show off their hard work.
At the concrete station, for example, girls finished off concrete projects by leveling it with screeds and then stamping fossils into the finished rock.
Belse Nejash, an eighth grade student at McGovern Middle School, said she found the concrete both smooth and satisfying. Her time at the CTE Academy on Thursday sparked her interest in taking nursing, baking and pastry classes at the academy.
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“This is a great opportunity,” Nejash said.
Britney Dieguez Duarte, an eighth grade student at Whittier Middle School, said she liked doing the different hands-on activities at the CTE Academy that “we usually might not be able to do at school.”
She said Thursday was a good opportunity to “come here, look around and see if maybe in high school, we want to go here and see the different types of classes you can take,” Dieguez Duarte said.
Ashlyn Plooster with the DLR said the event was a good way to get students interested in jobs in the Midwest where a lot of jobs include building roads and other hands-on work.
“These types of events are really important to open up that door and let them know that there are a lot of females that are in the industry,” Plooster said. “I don’t think they get a lot of light shined on them. I feel like this is important for growth in that area and especially for South Dakota to open up that avenue for females to join as well.”