The Women of ABC (WABC) hosted its annual Professional Career Day for 22 young women from various local high schools at Southway Builders’ working jobsites; Independence Place, a 22-unit apartment building to house homeless women and children by Marian House and Restoration Gardens 2 a 42 micro unit apartment building to provide permanent housing for homeless youth.
The day featured female speakers from the industry and highlighted career opportunities such as architecture, engineering, construction management and other industry/trade related fields, as well as to introduced the young women to the functions of an active jobsite. Several guest speakers, including Elizabeth Keady with Notre Dame Prep formerly with Marian House, Malindi Lankatilleke with Southway Builders, Connie Kumor with gba Architects, and Nichole Doye Battle with GEDCO explained their roles in the construction industry and relation to the project.
Two of the speakers and Dominick Dunnigan with Southway took the young women on an interactive tour of the projects where they learned about the projects’ budget and scheduling, the urban landscape considerations/challenges and the design parameters. Once the tours commenced, the young women broke into groups and put their new knowledge to use with a bidding activity led by Shelly Hutson with Southway Builders.
At the end of the day, the WABC women discussed the scholarship opportunity the committee awards young women interested in pursuing a career in construction.
Some special thanks go out to the Southway Builders team, WABC Chair Emily Rucinski with Hertzbach & Co., Teresa Rice with Southway Builders and the WABC Committee for organizing the event.