“I first attended Rosie's Girls as a seventh grader, the first year that the program ran, in Essex Jct. While I previously had a lot of experience working around tools and other machinery, it helped build my self-confidence learning how to use some new tools, especially doing things like welding. Team-building activities on the ropes course on one of the first days of camp taught me some leaderships skills, and also how to work better as part of a team.
When the Barre camp opened, I worked as a counselor in training (CIT), and a Junior Counselor. During my Junior Counselor year, I worked really hard to push myself beyond my comfort zone in leading the campers. Overall, I feel as though Rosie's Girls helped me gain some extremely valuable skills which have helped me getting into college and continuing my career. I also developed more of an interest in science and technology and how they are related to the trades. Also importantly, I was able to identify how important it is that women are not intimidated by male-dominated career fields, because in many cases that gives us a chance to excel and prove ourselves in a way that might not have otherwise occurred.
Also, just a footnote, I am currently an electrical engineering major/mathematics minor at Norwich University. It is something that I didn't necessarily plan on doing, but it is a lot of fun and is definitely something that I feel I can do well at and excel at, even though it has a very high male: female ratio!"
