One summer camp this season provides more than just arts and crafts and sports. It instead creates a space where girls can explore the idea of construction work as a career path. MAGIC camp, which stands for Mentoring a Girl in Construction, is a camp created solely for girls in high schoo, which focuses mainly on construction.
MAGIC camp's goal is to show girls that there are opportunities for them in the construction industry and to encourage their involvement in such careers.
Those who are interested in attending the camp will not be hindered by a camp fee because attending costs nothing.
Dakota Falls, a second year camper at the MAGIC camp at North Kansas City's Builders Association spoke to FOX 4 News.
"I'm open to a lot of things and a lot of girls are but they're afraid to get out there and do it because it's just guys everywhere," says Falls.
This summer the camp has 14 girls attending. Alise Martiny, chair of the National Association of Women in Construction, hopes that this number will continue to increase each year since there is a demand for skilled women in the field.
"Kansas City, Missouri has goals for 2 percent female on a project, we're meeting those goals but barely, we need to be exceeding those goals," Martiny says.
Her hopes are also to see the amount of women on the job increase to aid in growing the female success rate in the field.
"It is not an easy job but it's a great job and women can do this job if you can physically handle the heat and cold and don't mind getting up early in the morning because we start our jobs early," Martiny says, "it's a great opportunity it really is."
The camp will conclude with the girls getting the opportunity to tour around a construction site. The girls will have the opportunity to see and learn from the workers how construction takes place from the ground up.
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