Summer camps that give female students hands-on construction experience have thrived Philadelphia for nearly two decades. Mentoring young women in construction offers girls entering grades seven through twelve the opportunity to learn about careers in construction, facilities management and skilled trades.
Mary Gaffney, president of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) Philadelphia Foundation, which co-founded the camp, says MyWIC is “cultivating the next wave of women leaders in the skilled trades and construction industries.”
Now in its 17th summer, the two-week camp known as MyWIC held a session last month in Northeast Philadelphia and a separate session earlier this month in South Philadelphia.
Auri M. at the IBEW 98 Training Center where union apprentices taught him how to connect light switches and bend conduit.
Courtesy of MyWIC
Hosted by NAWIC, the camp offers a 100% donation discount and is organized by a volunteer committee of professional women from various union companies within the trades to expose campers to opportunities in engineering, construction management, architecture and the trades. Campers tour job sites and make industry connections.
Brianne Nevrotski, chair of MYWIC’s volunteer committee, said the Northeast session, now in its third summer, “has gained a lot of interest” because it’s close to several unions and attracts campers who already have parents in the trades. this year, 110 girls applied for 41 places, then Last year 97 girls applied to both camps and only 35 were accepted at each location.
“This year we expanded to a bigger bus to accommodate as many girls as possible and added nearly 60 entries.” Neurotic says.
Nevrotsky’s parents are own Concrete Cutting Systems, which operates in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The company has supported and volunteered for MyWIC for five years. Nevrotsky’s daughter Payeton, 15, has also been a camper for the past two years and is strongly considering a career in welding.
Nevrotski’s father, Dave Nevrotsky, says he likes that the campers “they can learn what construction is all about on a day-to-day basis,” make money without a college degree and maybe even start their own business. “My wife and I started our company in our basement 30 years ago.”
Other sponsors of this year’s camp include the General Building Contractors Association, NEST Integrated Facilities Management, HRP Impact Foundation and the Karen M. Stone Foundation. Hatzel & Buehler Inc., a 142-year-old union electrical contractor that employs about 2,000 IBEW electricians, had some of its employees speak at the camp this year.
“Programs like MYWIC provide an opportunity to challenge longstanding female stereotypes and misperceptions, introducing young women to rewarding career paths and demonstrating that success in construction is not limited by gender,” says Joann Martin, regional controller for Hatzel & Buehler in Philadelphia. “This was an opportunity to make a meaningful impact on campers while ‘helping cultivate the next generation of industry leaders.’
Hatzel & Buehler Assistant Project Manager Meaghan Wood shared her experience working on projects at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia with campers, offering a first-hand look at a typical day as a construction project manager. Wood also guided the campers through a bidding exercise, “which allowed them to experience a key aspect of project management and decision-making,” says Martin.
MyWIC Camp participants learn directly from apprentices by visiting local trade unions, including carpenters, sheet metal workers, masons, laborers, and electricians and finish trades.
Bridget wisniewiski, 15, a returning sophomore camper, is the daughter of a housing inspector, and her cousins work in the trades, one in scrap metal and one in carpentry. A third cousin is an HVAC technician, which got her interested in construction.
last year Wisniewiski he says he focused on all the basic trades. “Now I’m marking what I want to do; I’m thinking about carpentry and sheet metal joining,” he says. “We’re going to be doing job site visits this year; I’m excited.”
Bridget Wisniewiski and other MyWIC campers worked with union apprentices at the IBEW Training Center learning how to wire light switches and bend conduit. I’m under 16, but I can check.
Courtesy of MyWIC
Wisniewiski traveled with the camp to two active work sites this summer, including the Durapods plant in Chalfont, Pa., and Penn Medicine Montgomeryville, an outpatient center in North Wales, Pa., set to open in 2027. The girls learned about making bathroom pods for hospitals and hotel rooms.
The daughter of a electrician, Gold Martinezage 13, enjoyed watching welding demonstrations at camp to learn about sheet metal cutting. “It’s fun to see how you cut things with a metal machine and how metal things melt,” he says. “After the demos, we made hanging decorations and I hung mine as a wind chime on the porch.”
