ROANOKE, VA (WSLS 10) - Construction is a field dominated by men but Wednesday at Virginia Western Community College, it was all about the women as a camp to introduce girls to the field got underway.
It's called Magic Camp: Mentoring a Girl in Construction.
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"I Just wanted to learn about all the different fields in construction," said camp participant Christina Martin.
The high school senior likes hands-on work. She's going into her third year in carpentry and knows she wants to stick with the construction field. Martin says she hopes the three day camp helps point her to a specific specialty.
"How much they make what they do that's what I'm looking for and I think that's what will help me," she said.
Camp instructor Veronica Spradlin studied building construction at Virginia Tech. While there, she found guidance through the National Association of Women in Construction. She says she wants to offer other young girls the same.
"Mentoring and having support from someone to take me under their wing meant a lot."
Magic is exposing the twelve enrolled girls, in seventh to twelfth grade, to a variety of options like plumbing and electrical. TRANE is taking part to demonstrate equipment.
"This camp gives me an opportunity to in a laid-back camp environment, to teach them some hands-on things that I maybe didn't have a chance to do when I was growing up and learning," Spradlin said.
She says about half the girls taking part won't go into the field.
"Some of them already know what they want to do and it's nothing related to construction but they may own a house one day and they want to know how to work on things in their house."
It's encouragement for women in a field dominated by men but short on trained workers of any gender, Spradlin said. Martin says regardless of whether she's one of few females in the field, she's just happy to do what she loves.
"I don't really think about it that way. I think about it as just a job."
The girls will build a shed Thursday to be placed at a Habitat for Humanity home that will be built as an all woman build in October.