LONGWOOD, Fla. — It was an opportunity to not just learn from professionals, but also tap into a community of like-minded women.

“I love that sense of community we have coming here and having all the girls working here, people I can relate to in a sense,” Naomi Mathias said. “You do have people in your corner to say, ‘You can do this too, because I’ve done it.’”

Mathias was one of dozens of teenage girls who took part in a free camp held in June by the Greater Orlando chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction. 

The weeklong camp, in which teens rotated stations like pulling electrical wires or using a circular saw, was held at Lyman High School. It’s a school to which Mathias transferred in order to take part in its CTE program.

“About two years ago, my parents got an email saying this program was starting up and they asked me if I wanted to transfer to Lyman and so I said, ‘Why not? Let’s give it a shot,’” she said.

That was the student’s sophomore year, and now, as a rising senior, she’s comfortable moving around the shop floor. After all, she watched her father, a truck driver, constantly working on his car and envisioned that one day she, too, would be working with her hands.

“I thought I wanted to be a doctor,” she said. “I want to start my own company and give back.”

Women may be 47% of the U.S. labor force, but only take up ten percent of the construction jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And if that number is to change, according to Christina Lopez, young women need role models who are excelling in the construction field.

“I think at this age, they don’t even know all the opportunities that they have, so we have a variety of different contractors in,” she said. “They’re getting to see things. They don’t know how electricity gets in their house!”

Lopez works as a recruiting manager for Garney Construction, a company which builds water and wastewater treatment plants. But the woman also served in the army and sees parallels.

“So few women, and I feel like you had to work harder and prove yourself,” she said. “And this, construction feels like the military, like a family. I want these girls to feel like they have a family.”

It’s why she and other local industry leaders donated their time to teaching teens—and why Mathias took it upon herself to tack up flyers all over her high school, recruiting other would-be campers to come.

“Learning here and teaching all the other girls skills they need to know, or skills other people say, ‘You can’t do that, you’re a girl.’ It’s not true,” she said. “All these connections I make, I know I can come to them for the rest of my life and they’ll be there for me.”

At the end of the week, Lopez said that the teens fashioned seven tables and benches, which will be donated to Camp Boggy Creek in Eustis.

More than 100 girls were on this year’s waiting list for camp, she said. And with its growing popularity, Lopez added that they’ll soon be teaching other chapters within NAWIC’s region how to host a similar camp.