By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — One hundred Aroostook County girls from grades 8 through 12 attended a daylong conference last Wednesday at Northern Maine Community College that was designed to encourage them to consider careers in fields traditionally dominated by men.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
Following an introduction to plasma cutting, Rachel Wasson, a junior at Caribou High School, hand cuts her name from a sheet of steel during the recent Totally Trades conference. Assisting Wasson is Kurtis Gagnon, a work-study student in the welding department at Northern Maine Community College.
The ninth annual Totally Trades conference featured sessions ranging from carpentry and bridge building to heavy equipment operation and welding, all providing an opportunity for the girls to experience some aspect of the profession through a practical exercise.
“We do this because we want girls to expand their thinking about careers,” said Suzanne Senechal-Jandreau, conference planner and regional manager of the central Aroostook office of Women, Work and Community, a statewide organization committed to improving the economic lives of Maine women and their families. “The careers we’re exposing them to today are traditionally seen as male-dominated careers, so we’d like them to open up their thinking and do some career exploration.
“We want to give girls a hands-on workshop experience to spark their interest and raise awareness about some potentially high opportunity and high wage career fields that they may not have previously considered,” she said, “as well as provide female role models — women who can lead by example, having already succeeded in pursuing work that traditionally is viewed as ‘man’s work.’ We want to help area girls think outside the box and explore all their options.”
Students from as far south as Katahdin High School up to Wisdom High School attended the annual event.
Allie Dusza, a junior at Easton High School, also served as a student panelist.
“I wasn’t originally going to come back since I was here last year, but I was on the panel talking to eighth-graders about what I do for a class. I take auto body at the Caribou Technology Center, so I shared my experiences with the younger girls,” she said.
“The auto body/automotive program is fun and I’m learning a lot. I’m the only girl in the class,” Dusza said. “At the start of the year there were three of us, but two of them dropped out. I stuck with it. At the beginning all of the guys were like, ‘The girls can’t do it. They don’t understand what they’re doing,’ and now we’re all friends.”
This was Nicole McHattie’s first Totally Trades conference.
“My friends are interested in exploring different careers and I wanted to join them and see what I’d be interested in, as well,” said McHattie, a sophomore at Caribou High School. “I attended the carpentry workshop where we built our own tool boxes. It went really well and it looks really professional.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to explore different trades and learn more about career choices before I have to decide what I want to do in life,” she said, noting that she is thinking about becoming a surgeon. “It’s been a great pleasure to be here. I’ve met a lot of people today and I would encourage girls to come to the conference next year. I think it shows a great variety of different career choices and it’s not limited to just the males, so females get an opportunity to show what they can do and learn different trades.”
The conference is generously supported by the NMCC campus community, which serves as a host site for the event, and is a featured activity during the college’s recognition of April as National Community College Month.
Local sponsors include Northern Maine Development Commission, attorney Sarah LeClaire, K-PEL Industrial Services, McCain Foods USA, Soderberg Construction, S.W. Collins, Dr. Donald Cassidy, and Solman & Hunter, P.A. with in-kind support from Rathbun Lumber.
