I met a really fantastic woman named Terri Wiley a few months back through a mutual friend. Terri works as the marketing director and grant writer for an organization called Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. Every year Oregon Tradeswoman puts on a Career Fair and has been doing so for the last 22 years! I was so intrigued, that I had to go check it out and decided to volunteer at the High School Girls’ Day. It was one of those experiences where you leave feeling totally jazzed and excited about the future for the next generation of women. Women in the Trades totally rock!

The day started out with the girls arriving and getting some instruction, and then it was off to the workshops! I helped out with a few of the inside workshops, but also had a chance to explore! The girls were getting exposure to so many different jobs that I didn’t even know existed when I was in high school.

My Dad worked as a Union Carpenter, and my way of following in his footsteps was to become a Civil Engineer. It was the closest way to do something similar. Women didn’t go into the trades, that was a man’s world. Well I’m hear to tell you that it’s not any more!

I got to watch professional women do their thing, and show that a woman can certainly do a “man’s job.” The confidence, power, and composure of capable women performing highly technical skills put a smile on my face from ear to ear. The looks on the girls faces watching and learning was even better. The sound of excitement, hammers, and big machinery was palpable!

I helped girls in a few of the workshops including Solar Power, Wind Power, and Sheet Metal Flower Pots. The girls got to build a solar powered grasshopper, a windmill on a soda bottle, and flower pots. They were taught about the different industries, a day in the life of a professional woman in those careers, and got to take home something they created. Does it get much better than that?

Outside the girls really got to have some fun! They had the parking lot set up with all sorts of different activities! You could build a bird house,

take a ride in a PGE bucket truck,

climb a utility pole,

climb a ladder on a City of Portland Fire Truck,

try their hand at jackhammering and welding,

and climb some I-beams with ironworkers.

This woman who is an ironworker was my favorite! Talk about a bad ass woman! The best part is I overheard her telling someone that her kids got to see her on the news last night and that she got some major “cool points.” Carrying around all those tools every day and hanging with the boys is pretty cool indeed!

One of the other activities was fixing a water main break with the City of Portland Water Bureau. There was screaming, laughter, and some major teamwork getting the cuffs on the water pipe to stop the leaking. The pros guided the girls through the process, and I’m sure this will be something they’ll tell their friends and family about for a long time to come.

An of course, being a Transportation Engineer myself, the ODOT station was one of my favorites. Especially the portable changeable message sign (PCMS). It started the day reading “ODOT” and the girls then got to change the message sign. Many good times were had taking pictures in front of the sign.

Although my favorite was a message to “Alex.” All I can say is “Alex” better have responded yes!