On December 1, 2023 40 young women from 6 school districts spent the afternoon exploring pathways in the trades at the Southern Adirondack Education Center. Current CTE students were their guides for the day.
Business partners from The Fort Miller Group, DA Collins, and Sportline Power Products gave the future trades women career advice. It was particularly impactful hearing from Hailey Burdick who is a Sportline Power Products sales representative and alumni of the power sports technology program.
There were demonstrations of welding with oxy fuel, metal cutting with shears, and mig welding. The assignment in power sports technology was to take apart and put back together again a Briggs & Stratton motor, which is commonly found on snowblowers. In industrial and performance machining, students were shown how machinists program machines to custom make keychains.
HVAC students demonstrated how to use the box and pan brake which is used for sheet metal folding used to make duct work. In construction trades there were stations for stud layouts, hammering, rafter layout and more. Conservation students showed the future tradeswomen how to operate a wood splitter, a chainsaw, went over the basics of chainsaw maintenance, and even got into how to untangle chains.
The heavy equipment program featured a frontend loader. The young women also got some hands-on experience in the automotive technology program.
Haylee Frasier, a student from Indian Lake Central School, said “welding has always been interesting to me. Seeing it has encouraged me more.”
One Queensbury student summed up the afternoon perfectly: “I want to try everything!”
"Our hope is to encourage young women to see themselves in non-traditional programs by creating opportunities for them to experience the trades with a fresh perspective," said Jared Davis, Director of Career and Technical Education, WSWHE BOCES.
"Events like this provide insight into the many opportunities that exist within the trades," added Davis.
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