Chicago mentorship program organizes all-girls' construction conference
A local mentoring program is on a mission to inspire young girls to be anything.
On Wednesday, that meant introducing them to careers not thought of as typically being held by women.
This week, 300 middle and high schoolers attended Chicago's first-ever All-Girls' Pink Hard Hat Construction Conference.
The three-day workshop was organized by Polished Pebbles, a mentoring initiative that has been helping girls across the Chicago area for 15 years.
The Polished Pebbles program held the conference in partnership with ComEd, Professional Women in Construction, and Lakeside Alliance — the construction team behind the Obama Presidential Center.
"I feel like it's pretty cool for me to be a woman to learn about all these things for me to be able to have chance to be able to do," said Savanah Temple.
"At first, I was like, 'No, I don't want to do that, it seems boring,' and stuff like that. But then I got here — it was actually pretty cool," said Amylah McCullough. "So don't say you don't like something until you try it."
Donning pink hard hats and pink T-shirts, the girls had the opportunity to fly drones, learn to mix concrete, and hear directly from women working in the construction industry.
