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The first class of campers graduated from Future Construction Leaders’ Camp Teen Girls Silicon Valley in Redwood City on the afternoon of June 25.
FCL is a nonprofit that helps young people pursue careers in the private and public construction sectors through programs like this free three-day summer camp. FCL’s Camp Teen Girls was brought to the Bay Area after a local mom discovered the 17-year-old chapter in San Diego.
Jagu Patel, who is now FCL Silicon Valley’s committee chair, had been sending her daughters to the San Diego camp for the past three years when she approached FCL President Linda Young.
“I had asked (Young) one day, ‘Why isn’t there one in the Bay Area?’ and she was like, ‘I don’t know. Why don’t you start it?’ So here we are,” Patel said.
She especially hopes that experience in the world of construction can inspire young students to look past Silicon Valley’s tech industry and realize there are other avenues toward success.
“This camp is not just about using tools. It’s also learning about leadership, confidence and what’s possible,” Patel said in her speech at Wednesday’s celebration. “We’re in Silicon Valley, where college is often the default goal, and that’s great, but I want to be crystal clear here: college and construction are not an either, or. You can absolutely go to college and have a career in construction. In fact, this field needs college grads in civil and electrical engineering, architecture, design, (etc).”
The grassroots effort to bring the program to fruition took 10 months, Patel told this news organization. Volunteers from local construction companies stepped into the role of camp counselors; the affordable housing nonprofit Rebuilding Together Peninsula provided its Redwood City warehouse as the camp’s location and Patel, along with her all-female board, conducted extensive outreach to find sponsors and get the word out.
“We got enough interest, so we’re really happy and proud. We love the turnout,” Patel told this news organization. “(The) girls are having so much fun, and I think the volunteers are enjoying their time helping out too and giving back to the community.”
Each girl’s capstone project was building a library bench that would be donated locally, emphasizing the camp’s intersection of cultivating hard skills applicable to the industry as well as instilling values like collaboration and civic engagement.
“(The campers) learned how to install and uninstall a toilet and sink. They dove into drywall, carpentry, electrical and tiling. They learned how to read site plans. They created library benches as a give back project because even while they’re building their skills, they’re learning to build up their communities too,” Patel said in her speech.
The social ties of those within Redwood City and the surrounding area provided the foundation. Local companies, families and schools came together to make sure teen girls within the area could have this opportunity. The camp’s title sponsor, Truebeck Construction, was one such stakeholder.
“We’ve been a member of the Redwood City Peninsula for a really long time. Our offices used to be out on Redwood Shores, and so we feel passionate about this community and want the girls, especially, to understand that there’s a place for them,” Chief Financial Officer Kathy Reiner told this news organization.
Reiner underscored the importance of making lucrative career paths accessible to those within the Bay Area as early as possible — considering it has some of the highest cost of living in the United States.
“The fact that you’re here and that you’ve chosen to explore this industry, that already puts you ahead … You gave back to your communities with the benches, and that’s what construction is: It’s not just tools and hard hats; it’s creativity, it’s problem-solving, teamwork and leadership,” Reiner said in her camp graduation address.
To continue uplifting young girls and open the field of construction to them, Patel and others organizing the camp hope to expand their capacity in the coming years, running the camp for a full week or taking on more participants. However, as long as she knows at least one camper is impacted by this program, Patel knows they have all succeeded.
