In these four photos, above and below, high school girls from the surrounding area practice woodworking at Northern Michigan University’s Jacobetti Center for Friday’s Women in Construction event. (Journal photo by Alexandria Bournonville)

MARQUETTE — Girls from area high schools got hands-on experience in the trades at Northern Michigan University’s Women in Construction event on Friday.

This career exploration had students participating in welding, graphic technology, woodworking, trade opportunities, leadership and construction management.

NMU construction management professor Heidi Blanck began the day with a presentation debunking some myths about the profession.

“Women in construction make 95% of what men make,” she said. “Across all industries, women make about 83% of what men make in general. So we have the lowest gender-pay gap of any industry in the U.S. And there’s an incredible amount of growth right now — a labor shortage that we know we can fill with any able and qualified person, regardless of gender.”

One Northern welding student who has volunteered in the program for the last three years, who is also currently the only woman at the shop she works at, similarly said the trades are misunderstood.

“I feel like people think of them as low-class,” she said, “because you come home and you’re just disgusting after the day and you work all these weird hours — like you could work a normal shift or you could work like 14 hours in a day straight — so people think, ‘Oh, that’s not something I want to do, that’s a low-class job’ but you don’t realize you’re making good money to do that kind of stuff.”

Fellow volunteer and Northern welding student Keira Wilson said, “There is such a high demand for welders right now and especially being a woman in the trades, it looks good for companies to have. It’s a motivation.”

While the high school students went around NMU’s Jacobetti Complex using the various rooms and equipment for projects, they weren’t the only ones learning new things.

Schwemin said she and Wilson practiced more of the business and financial side of the trades by helping to plan and design the event.

“We looked at the budget … so it was a little different than having it planned out and just telling us what we have to do (and) prep all the pieces,” Schwemin said. “We actually went and found the project online that we thought would be nice, then we budgeted everything, found the pricing and got everything ordered.”

Schwemin said just a few years ago she was on the other side, a high school student participating in the event.

“It’s a great thing they’ve started,” Wilson said. “It’s been going for awhile but I’m glad that they did it.”

The younger girls received a message of hope from Schwemin, who was able to use her real-world work experience to tell them what to expect.

“All the people are really amazing, too,” Schwemin said about her fellow NMU students and staff. “I always expected people to be a bit harsher because we’re women, but they’re all really helpful. You mess up and they’re like, ‘Let me show you, let me help you, let me give you some pointers.’ It’s not what people think it would be like.”

Wilson called the Women in Construction event a “good starting point” for a successful career in the trades.

Blanck, who helps to host the event each year, said it’s very rewarding to see.

“As a woman in construction myself and as a faculty member in a construction program, I know that girls have an amazing opportunity in this field, so to be able to introduce them to this in such an engaging way is really rewarding for not only me, but for all the volunteers that are here, from industry, students, everybody. It’s really a positive experience for everybody involved.”

Alexandria Bournonville can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 506. Her email address is

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