Oregon Tradeswomen’s 2018 Career Fair Wrap-Up
On May 18th and 19th, Oregon Tradeswomen held our 26th Annual Career Fair and it was one of our best years ever! This enormously impactful event, graciously hosted once again by the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center, featured more than 100 companies and organizations representing the trades and other non-traditional career paths for women, and offered insights into the possibilities of a future in those careers to more than 2,300 students and adult career seekers.
To make the Career Fair more accessible and easier to navigate, Oregon Tradeswomen worked with event app developer Crowd Compass to create our very own application for the event. The application included an interactive map, a list of exhibitors, activity schedules, and a social feed for attendees to share about their experiences at Fair throughout the day.
Building birdhouses with Skanska!
Career Fair attendees were met with unique opportunities to not only talk to employers at exhibit tables, but also participate in hands-on activities and workshops. From using an excavator to pick up a tire with the Operating Engineers Local 701, to building a birdhouse with Skanska, the experiences offered at Oregon Tradeswomen’s Career Fair visibly stirred excitement about the construction trades among the participants.
Melinda of the IUOE Local 701 teaching a young woman how to use an excavator!
The most raucous enthusiasm came from the middle and high school girls who attended the Career Fair on Friday May 18th, School Girls’ Day. With record attendance, 75 schools came from as far south as Roseburg and as far north as Castle Rock bringing more than 1,300 students! Many of these young women had never imagined a future in the trades for themselves, but after participating in workshops and talking to tradeswomen, they began to see that their interests aligned with some of the careers introduced to them at the Career Fair. The school girls were so moved by their experiences that we heard back from several schools. A teacher from Madras said,
“We’ve been taking students for the past 12+ years and it gets better each year.”
Even the whole Pendleton School District wrote back saying,
“[We] attended the recent Career Fair for the first time ever and had an absolutely amazing time. We brought 30+ middle school and high school students who positively glowed with excitement about the experience on the ride home and are already looking forward to next year. We loved the wide range of exhibits and activities and the staff and exhibitors were so inspiring.”
School Girls Day at Oregon Tradeswomen’s 26th Annual Career Fair!
Usually, Friday’s School Girls’ Day outshines the Saturday crowd, but this year Saturday was nearly as busy as Friday with more than 1,000 people flowing in and out of the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center to participate in hands-on activities and speak with representatives at their exhibit booths! A few of the students from Friday returned to the Career Fair on Saturday with their friends and families to show them the workshops and careers that sparked a genuine interest!
One of the crowd favorite, and overall inspirational elements of Oregon Tradeswomen’s annual Career Fair was the Tradeswomen Fashion Show where real women working in the trades and other nontraditional careers had their moment on stage and in the spotlight, to talk about what their job entails, how they came to be tradeswomen, and why they love the work they do.
Fashion Show participants at Oregon Tradeswomen’s 26th Annual Career Fair!
Oregon Tradeswomen annual Career Fair is important because it is a place where women and girls can see other women who are successful in an industry where you don’t see very women. It was truly inspiring to see how many women of all ages discover that they, too, can pursue these careers. It all goes back to our favorite adage, “If you can see it, you can be it!”
Oregon & SW Washington Roofers & Waterproofers Feature Women Roofers in New Website!
Our friends at the Oregon & SW Washington Roofers and Waterproofers launched a new website and we are excited to highlight their new “Women in Roofing” page! The importance of visibility for women in the trades is paramount, so we applaud the Roofers and Waterproofers for giving the women in their trade a platform to speak about their experiences.
With the launch of their new site, the Roofers and Waterproofers feature an interview with Rosa Rivera, an apprentice roofer, on the “Women in Roofing” page. She answers questions about the challenges she has faced during her apprenticeship, how she handles hard situations, and if she has a support network that she can go to when she needs help.
We also want to thank the Roofers and Waterproofers for spreading the word about our upcoming 2018 Career Fair! Be sure to stop by their space and say hello to their apprentices and graduates and learn more about what it is like being a roofer or waterproofer!
Our Students Help Build Four New Tiny Homes in Dignity Village
On April 4th, four new tiny homes were unveiled at Dignity Village, one of Portland’s oldest city-recognized camps which is a membership-based community providing shelter to more than 50 people. Many of the structures are more than 15 years old and have problems with mold, leaks, and pests. To help improve the situation, a few local nonprofits, including Oregon Tradeswomen and The ReBuilding Center, came together to build better homes for the camp.
Not only does this project benefit the community, but it gives our students the invaluable opportunity to get hands-on construction experience. This is incredibly important to our Training Director, Amy James Neel:
“Building small structures provides students with a unique opportunity to touch multiple aspects of residential construction on a condensed timeline. The building skills they develop during class prepares them to integrate into professional trades jobs where they will make a living wage. The partnership between the ReBuilding Center and Oregon Tradeswomen allows our students to build safe structures for our community while also building their own confidence that they belong in the skilled trades.”
We are beaming with pride for our students, both for their exemplary work and for this important contribution to our community!
Oregon Tradeswomen “We’ve BEEN Doing It” At AAUW Convention
The American Association of University Women (AAUW) held a convention on the weekend of the 20th of April in Hillsboro, OR where many women gathered for meetings, workshops, and networking around the topics of equity, empowerment, and education of women. Oregon Tradeswomen’s Construction Training Director, Amy James Neel, had the honor of leading a workshop at the event on Saturday called “We’ve BEEN Doing It!”
Amy discovered carpentry by accident, but the trades are her ideal career! She didn’t even know that the trades were an option for her, as representations of tradeswomen are not common. This put Amy on a mission to introduce women and girls to the possibilities of a career in the trades. This path eventually led her to Oregon Tradeswomen where’s she’s been for the last decade at first as a contract instructor, and now as our Training Director!
The workshop Amy led was focused on Oregon Tradeswomen, how our Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class is structured, how it impacts the women who seek our services, and our long-lasting impact on families, on our community, and on the industry – literally changing the face of construction. So many people were interested in attending this workshop that it filled to capacity and a number of people had to be turned away at the door. We are so grateful people are interested in the work we do and want to learn more about how they can support our mission.
DJC Launches Women of Vision Magazine
Every year, the Daily Journal of Commerce (DJC) honors exemplary Women of Vision who, through their leadership, hard work, and perseverance, are shaping our built environment with their leadership, mentoring efforts, community involvement and the promotion of industry diversity.
The DJC Honors a new group of such women each year at the “Women of Vision Awards Luncheon. While this is an important annual event, Daily Journal of Commerce Editor, Stephanie Basalyga, thought that these influential women deserved more than a single event:
“We at the Daily Journal of Commerce decided it was time to create Women of Vision magazine. Named after the awards program the DJC holds each fall, this new quarterly publication will tell the stories of women who are building our city, our state and our region.”
The DJC’s new publication will share stories about women of the past who shaped the world to be as how we know it, as well as the women of the present who are helping direct the future of the construction industry.
The inaugural edition of Women of Vision features women such as Nina Allen, a construction inspector for the Portland International Airport, and Lisa Patterson, recipient of the Mark O. Hatfield Architectural Award.
Do you know of a woman who deserves to be acknowledged for her dedication to the industry? Women of Vision magazine encourages introductions and submissions. Send email to: wovmagazine@djcoregon.com.
You may read their first issue online here!
PCC Honors Oregon Tradeswomen as “Employer Partners of the Year”
On April 11, 2018, nearly 100 people representing Portland Community College‘s (PCC) key employer partners gathered at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry for an early morning breakfast hosted by PCC. Three organizations were recognized as PCC’s Employer Partners of the Year: one small business (Blessing Landscapes), one large business (Intel Corporation), and one non-profit (Oregon Tradeswomen).
Marc Goldberg, associate vice president of Workforce Development and Continuing Education at PCC, stated:
“For PCC to effectively prepare its students for employment opportunities and careers in an ever-changing work environment, we need strong partnerships with local employers… The event was simply a means to thank our partners, whose input, support and guidance enables PCC to educate a skilled workforce — and this is what drives Oregon’s economy. PCC’s partnership with a variety of organizations, in many and varied configurations, enables the college to be a critical catalyst for the region’s economic success. All of us can stand to benefit from a thriving economy, and for that, we want to thank our partners.”
PCC staff spent a year and a half of planning and deliberation when considering which partners had the most impact on PCC students, graduates, and the communities to which they belong. Oregon Tradeswomen was selected in recognition of our partnership with PCC’s Swan Island Trades Center which offers programs in welding, machine manufacturing technology, and career pathways. Additionally, Oregon Tradeswomen’s Industrial Fabrication track (formerly known as “Women in Metals & Manufacturing” program) brings many women to PCC to advance their education in metal disciplines. Oregon Tradeswomen’s commitment to advancing equity in the trades has also influenced PCC’s partnership with Vigor and the Maritime Welding program where women are currently 50 percent of the students!
Oregon Tradeswomen staff: Abby Bandurraga, Pathways Program Manager (left) and Max Beyelia, Job Developer (right)
Amy James Neel, Oregon Tradeswomen’s Training Director, observed, “Our students tend to go off into a lot of different construction industries, some of which we are really well connected with, and some of which PCC helps us gain even better access to those connections. PCC has been able to bridge that divide for our pre-apprenticeship program, which prepares them for these entry-level jobs.”
Oregon Tradeswomen extends our deepest gratitude and appreciation to Portland Community College not only for this honor, but for being truly outstanding community partners!
Update 5/9/18: You can view PCC’s video about Oregon Tradeswomen here!
Oregon Tradeswomen’s Executive Director Reflects on Women’s History Month
During the month of March in the United States, we officially celebrate women who’ve dedicated their lives to create a better future as “Women’s History Month”, tracing the event beginnings back to the first International Women’s Day in 1911.
We take this time to honor the many women in our nation’s history who fought for justice, equality, and equity, including Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman, and Alice Paul. We honor our sisters in the labor movement who worked to ensure equal rights and equal pay in the workplace, such as Lucy Parsons, Mary Harris Jones, Leonora O’Reilly, Frances Perkins, Luisa Moreno, and Esther Peterson. We celebrate our sisters in more recent decades like Shirley Ware, Linda Chavez-Thompson, Mary Kay Henry, and others who continue to fight for our rights and for our future. We hold up the iconic symbol of our tradeswomen movement, Rosie the Riveter, reminding the world and ourselves, “We Can Do It!”.
Tradeswomen, 1981. © Bettye Lane
This month, Oregon Tradeswomen would like to take a moment to honor and acknowledge the incredible contributions tradeswomen make each and every day. Here in Portland, across our state, and throughout our nation, tradeswomen are still pioneers in industries like construction, transportation, manufacturing, and rail, working to care for their families and build our communities. Up early and home late, our sisters are not just working for a paycheck, they are working for change. They are active mentoring, volunteering, working in their unions, participating in committees, and serving as role models. They vote, they organize, they donate time, talent, and dollars to our tradeswomen movement to impact change. They raise their hands, their fists, and their voices. Yet often, our sisters are not heard.
In this era of #MeToo, we need to stand strong in our support of, and in solidarity with tradeswomen. For far too long, women working in our industry have experienced sexual harassment at an alarming rate, and often at great personal cost. According to a bipartisan 2016 report of the Co-Chairs of the EEOC Special Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace, 88 per cent of female construction workers experience sexual harassment at work, compared to 25 per cent of women in the general workforce. Women leave the construction sector at a faster rate than their male colleagues, according to a 2014 report by the National Women’s Law Center – noting that in some trades, 70 percent of women leave before completing their apprenticeship training program, compared to 53 percent of men. The women who leave point to hostile work environments and sexual harassment as reasons for exiting.
At Oregon Tradeswomen, we are working to change our industry and create a different future – not just for women, but for all of our workforce. We know that when worksites are equitable and respectful, all workers benefit, not just women. Industry benefits too – studies show a decrease in employee turnover, greater productivity, increased job satisfaction and loyalty, and overall improved performance. Our work includes the recent implementation of a new model for shifting jobsite culture, and is currently being implemented at the Multnomah County Courthouse project. This bystander intervention model is demonstrating promises outcomes in creating respectful worksites. It is providing tools for the construction workforce to speak up, speak out, and make a difference. We look forward to sharing more in the coming months on this model, and in the meantime, we ask you to join us in honoring tradeswomen not just this month, but every day.
Kelly Kupcak
Executive Director of Oregon Tradeswomen
Waterleaf Architecture’s International Women’s Day Fundraiser for Oregon Tradeswomen
Our generous friends at Waterleaf Architecture are celebrating this year’s International Women’s Day like they did last year; by kicking off a fundraiser for Oregon Tradeswomen! You may have seen some of Waterleaf’s work at Lloyd Center as they were responsible for the much-needed facelift of the mall including the three story spiral staircase that was an homage to the original iconic spiral staircase from the mall’s opening in 1960.
Waterleaf has always been so supportive of our mission and wants to make sure that our Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class has the proper equipment for students to hone their skills in preparation for their apprenticeships! To participate in Waterleaf Architecture’s fundraiser, you can donate here! And don’t forget to mention Waterleaf in the “How did you hear about us?” section when making your donation so that they can track their fundraising goal. The fundraiser started on International Women’s Day, March 8th.
We send our deepest gratitude to Waterleaf Architecture for their ongoing support of our mission!
TACC Field Trip to Hampton Lumber!
In January, our Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC) had the opportunity to take a field trip to Hampton Lumber and tour their distribution center on SE Front St. here in Portland. TACC students got to have an inside look at what a day in Hampton Lumber’s transfer station is like. We saw the process as the workers cut the lumber to various sizes, package the lumber, and then load it on the rail cars. Students also talked with the staff about entry level work and the various jobs that are available at Hampton Lumber.
Founded in 1950, Hampton Lumber is privately owned by the Hampton Family with its headquarters here in Portland, Oregon. They own and operate 9 sawmills in Oregon, Washington, and even British Columbia. Hampton is deeply invested in each of the communities where they employ workers.
In each community, Hampton Lumber prioritizes affordable housing, youth and education, and the arts. They support organizations and causes by donating time and lumber to Habitat for Humanity, advocating for the arts in urban and rural communities, donating to the Oregon Food Bank and Adopt-a-Family, and working closely with local schools and colleges to not only provide workforce training opportunities, but create and maintain important relationships with the communities’ youth.
In addition to being patrons of their community, Hampton Lumber is an exceptional place of employment. Their employees are excited about the work they do and look forward to coming to their jobs every day. This enthusiasm creates a positive work environment that encourages worker retention. Because they care about their employees, Hampton Lumber provides many opportunities for education through training and apprenticeship.
Hampton Lumber is also dedicated to increasing women’s participation in the lumber industry and in the skilled trades in general. Hampton promotes a supportive workplace environment for everyone, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability.
Those interested in finding out more about Hampton Lumber are highly encouraged to reach out and give them a call. The folks at Hampton Lumber are truly friendly and are more than willing to answer all of your questions as well as possibly show you around their facilities. Make that first move and come in to experience what Hampton Lumber is all about.
Don’t forget to check them out on Facebook!
Hands On Metal Fabrication at ADX Portland
TACC students learning how to assemble their frames
On Thursday, February 8, 2018, Oregon Tradeswomen’s Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC) had the opportunity to get hands on experience with metal fabrication! Metal fabrication is the altering of raw materials by way of bending, cutting, welding, etc. in order to build structures. This hands on day happened at ADX Portland, a makerspace where people can share tools and knowledge, and take advantage of a huge facility with a wood shop, metal shop, print shop, and jewelry shop.
TACC students learning how to operate a Horizontal Band Saw
Our students were tasked with creating their own plaque stands. They were each given 5 sections of channel iron and learned how to cut and grind their materials. They used a horizontal band saw to cut, and a disc grinder to grind down and clean up the edges. Students learned the ever valuable lesson, “measure twice, cut once,” a carpenter’s proverb that also applies to metal fabrication. This rule is important to consider because it is, of course, faster to double check your measurements than cut incorrectly and have to waste time and resources making the cut again.
Measure twice, cut once!
Once each of the students prepped their materials, the class learned how to “tack weld” their iron segments together to make a frame. A tack weld is just a series of small welds spaced some distance apart. This type of weld is usually only a temporary step in the welding process, but it holds the assembled components in place and ensures their alignment which is all that is needed for a small project like a plaque stand. After the welds are complete, the students cleaned them up by gently using an angle grinder to smooth out any protruding material.
TACC students tacking their segments together
It was clear that our students were enthusiastic about learning to craft with metal and it was an added perk that they got to take home something that they build with their own two hands! Special thanks to ADX for allowing our students to learn about another great option for a career in their beautiful space.
Our students’ final product!