Ep. #42 - Stephanie Hajducek - Inspiring the Next Generation of Women in Industry

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In this episode of The Crude Cast, Travis sits down with Stephanie Hajducek—project specialist at Enbridge and founder of This One’s for the Gals. From a simple idea to a thriving nonprofit, Stephanie shares how she’s connecting young women to careers in construction, energy, manufacturing, and maritime. Hear the story of how a conference trip sparked an initiative that now impacts hundreds of schools across Texas, the unique challenges women face entering heavy industry, and the success stories of girls who turned opportunity into careers. Stephanie’s mission is clear: awareness, exposure, and belief that “girls can’t be what they can’t see.” 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_05: 0:00

By the time I was done, I got over 200 girls an opportunity. And the night before the conference, we're standing in the lobby and I was talking to some of the, just chatting and there were, you know, one of them, she said, you know, we did not even know about this conference or that we could bring students to it. This is such a great opportunity for our girls. And then she said something that I will never forget. And she's like, hey, could they do this? And I was like, well, how old are they? Four and six. And I was like... Oh, one of the most important things, though, it was important to me in the books to really clarify and really help like the reader, the children understand what does this company do? Right. What do they make than her? Right. And so a couple of weeks later, she texts me and she's like, oh, my gosh, they just asked me to be the face of the expo.

SPEAKER_02: 0:52

I told them

SPEAKER_05: 0:53

I told them my situation and they said.

SPEAKER_02: 0:56

Appreciate you making the time to come on and talk with me and tell us about your organization and give us a little bit of background on kind of how you got started maybe like where you're at currently and then you know kind of how you got there and obviously overall you know how your organization this one's for the gals kind of fits into all that

SPEAKER_05: 1:20

so my name is stephanie had a check and i live in a little town called tap texas it is in south texas right outside of corpus christi and i am in my day job i am project specialist for Enbridge we are developing a new ammonia production plant called Project Yarin and it is going to be a joint venture project between Enbridge and Yara and so I do community and stakeholder engagement so I'm here in the community helping the community get to know us and what we're doing why we're doing it why is it important how we're doing it all the different things and really again just creating that relationship with our community so that's what I do in my day job and I absolutely love it it's a great space to be working in and it's a very exciting time because it is a project that will bring about 200 jobs to this area. And so I'm very excited about that. Yeah. And so in my spare time, I feel the future of women in industry through my nonprofit called This One's for the Gals. And it literally started from such a small idea that has grown into something that I never, ever dreamt that it could. And so I guess really what kind of started, you So we are career exploration and workforce development for girls. We focus on construction, energy, manufacturing, and maritime from skilled trades to STEM. So whether they're looking to go straight into the workforce after high school, maybe they're wanting to pursue a two-year degree, or maybe they're on a four-year path, right? They want to be an engineer or get their MBA or whatever that looks like for them. We want to help them explore careers specifically with companies, you know, right down the road, right in their backyard, and just helping them know there's a place out there for them in that workforce. And so we focus on K through 12. So all the way from elementary school, middle, junior high school, high school, as early as we can, kind of helping create that awareness. And it's been great. Like I said, it grew so quickly. And that small idea that I had was back in October of 2021. And so our family moved to this area in January of 2020. My husband got a new position with a new manufacturing facility that was being built in this area. And so that project moved us here and we have three kids, twin boys. At that time, we're sophomores. Our daughter was in middle school. And so we moved down here and my husband is an industrial electrician by trade. He grew up in the craft, went straight into the workforce, learned trade, learned it well, and has done some amazing things just coming from a skilled trade background, right? And so he's worked for, I mean, these awesome, amazing companies. This project that he was on was like one of the largest projects in the world. He's traveled the world. He's done so many different things. And I always tell him, I'm like, you need to go talk to some students and let them know your path,

SPEAKER_00: 4:09

right? Sign them up for

SPEAKER_05: 4:10

something. Yeah, yeah. And so he was on this project from the very beginning. They had just broke ground. So he was on early engineering design at the corporate headquarters for a couple of years right outside of Houston, moved down here to the area. They were starting construction, get into commissioning And so he came over as an electrical supervisor. And fast forward a little bit, he was ready to hire technicians. He was looking for electricians. And he had a lot of trouble, like finding qualified technicians here in the area. And, you know, he came home and he's like, man, you know, we're having a Zoom interview people. We're having to fly people down for interviews. And, you know, and so that's really what kind of like, you know, sparked the conversation. I was like, why are we having to bring people in? This company, they didn't build this facility overnight. We knew for about five years they're coming, they're building this large manufacturing facility. With them, they brought 400 jobs for that particular project. What are we doing to help our kids learn about these careers? Again, our boys were sophomores at a high school right down the road and there was no outreach campaigns, no awareness programs, just nothing helping. connect you know our students to industry and so we hadn't been talking to boys much less girls right about any of these careers and so that's kind of what you know kind of kicked off the the idea that i had now there's a conference that's held in galveston texas it's called power women in industry power stands for pipe fitters operators welders electricians and riggers and i attended this conference in 2017 and i remember there being school buses outside and they They had bussed in local high school girls to attend this conference and they got to hear from women that are out in these roles. They got to talk to employers, education partners. Like I was like, that's such an amazing idea. Like at that age, having that opportunity to get exposure to these career paths. And so that was in 2017. And, you know, we're over here in 2021 now. And I just kind of started thinking about that conference. And I first tried to find something that was maybe similar that was closer because it's about a four hour drive for us. And I couldn't find anything. I couldn't find anything that focused on those careers. And so I just approached my manager at the company that I was working for and just said, hey, you know, there's this really great conference. I think it'd be beneficial if we could help our local school district get a trip, make a field trip, take some of their high school students to it. It's similar career pathways that we have here that they'll learn about over there. And my manager thought it was a great idea. He's like, you know, why don't you go talk to the school, introduce yourself tell them we'll provide some funding and help them make the trip. So I went to the school and they were like, absolutely, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 7:07

We would

SPEAKER_05: 7:08

love to collaborate. Yes. And so they were like, yeah, we'll provide bus transportation. We'll take our girls the night before, stay in the hotel. And so that response was really great. And our kids are at a different school, literally 15 minutes down the road. And I'm like, I want the same opportunity for, you know, the girls at our school. And so I just kind of nudged my husband and I'm like, hey, you know, might I be able to contact that might help. And so I reached out and I just basically said, this is what we're doing for our local high school. Would you be interested in sponsoring yours? And that response was great. They were like, oh, this is a great initiative. We would love to help. And so then I kept going. I was like, well, there's another school down the road. There's another industry partner down the road. And initially, my small idea was, again, just getting 10 to 12 girls with a chaperone, loading them up in our company van and driving to this conference for the day. But by the time I was done, I got over 200 girls an opportunity.

SPEAKER_01: 8:08

Dang.

SPEAKER_05: 8:10

It was amazing. It was nine different schools supported by our local industry. Again, I just kept hearing, yes, yes, we love this. We love this. And yeah. And so even, even then though, even at that point, I was, I still just wanted to get, you know, girls an opportunity to go and learn about these careers. Starting a nonprofit was nowhere on my radar. I had always worked in industry. I, it was just, I just wanted this opportunity for them. And so again, a lot of the schools went the night before. They stayed at the hotel right next to where the event was being held. It's called Moody Garden. So Moody Gardens Hotel. Some of them, you know, took the girls out, had a nice dinner, had them dress up. You know, it was just a great just experience for these girls. And the night before the conference, we're standing in the lobby and I was talking to some of the chaperones. So whether, you know, they were a principal, a CTE director, counselors, teachers, just chatting. And they were, you know, one of them, she said, you know, we did not even know about this conference or that we could bring students to it. This is such a great opportunity for our girls. And then she said something that I will never forget. She said, Stephanie, you may not realize this, but the majority of our girls have probably never stayed in a They've probably never been out of their hometown. And Travis, I like to say that's the night this one's for the gals was truly born because it was no longer about a conference or field trip. It's just awareness and opportunity. We see so much generational poverty. Our kids see their parents get by making ends meet and then thinking that that's just life and that's how my life is going to be. And I'm like, that is not life. Those cycles do not have to continue. How can we show them that through a career Again, whatever after high school looks like, maybe you do need to go straight to work. Okay, let's learn a skill. Let's learn a trade. You want to go to get a two-year? Let's look at some programs. There are scholarship programs, tuition assistance. You want to get that four-year degree. Again, just helping connect industry to their high schools, middle schools, junior highs, high schools. That's really the gap that I wanted to sit in. And so I decided to start this nonprofit. Had no clue what I was doing. But I tell people, I'm like, it's just one of those things that started happening and I just had to keep happening with it. I was like, I just, I just got to do it or I just got to do it. And so it's been very successful. You know, my main goal was to bring an expo to our area. I'm like, why aren't we doing something similar? You know, we're had the same industry type jobs here. And so we've done that the last three years in a row. It's been great. Now branching out to different areas of Texas. We were down in the Rio Grande Valley last year. We're going to central Texas this year for our main high school initiative, which is the expo for high school girls. And And then, you know, we have middle junior high school initiative where we're doing these hands on workshops. We have a really cool electrical workshop. They're making a charging station. They're wiring it up. You know, they're putting it all together. We're talking about electricity. How is it generated? Right. All forms. Right. All solar, wind, nuclear, all everything. We need all the energies. You know, and how does it kind of get to where they plug in their phone and they can charge their phone? You know, it's not magic. It takes a lot to make that happen. And so, yeah. So not just talking to on the ground positions either. You know, I'm like, whether it's again, you want to get out there and put on a hard hat and steel toes. But let's talk about other, you know, career pathways from learning and development, procurement, supply chain, human resources. I mean, gosh, the list goes on and on and on, right? There's so much that helps our industry partners do what they do. And so, again,

SPEAKER_02: 11:49

which one, which kind of pathway do you see the most like enthusiasm around for these girls? So

SPEAKER_05: 12:00

the like the two year technical degrees, so like your instrumentation, your millwright, your process tech, those right there are the ones that I have seen girls get more interested in. And it's really exciting. And I've seen a lot of our industry partners now start internships, apprenticeships, kind of like hiring on. And then, you know, you go to school or, you know, these days you come to work for these days. And it's like that really great relationship between our industry partners and our junior college. I also tell a girl So, you know, I mean, don't think that that's where you stop, right? Again, whether you learn a trade and go right to work, if you want to continue pursuing a degree, your company will support that, right? The company you're working for more often than not, you know, they have tuition reimbursement programs and there's always that opportunity. I don't want them to just like, just think like, oh, this is it. I'm like, no, the sky's the limit, but it's up to you, right? It's going to be up to you on how far you want to take it. But if you want to go there, they'll help support you.

SPEAKER_02: 12:57

Yeah. And is it awareness more than anything that is kind of, we're saying that women basically don't know about these industries, but is there some other barrier that is, I mean, why would guys kind of more go into it, but not girls?

SPEAKER_05: 13:17

Right. And, you know, even, and that's why I call it, this one's for the gals. And there's no cool story about the name or anything like that at all. Because again, you know, when this idea came up, I Right. is kids are like, I can't wait to grow up. I can't wait to graduate and get out of this small town because that was my mindset. Right. But I just didn't know what I didn't know. And so again, it is that awareness factor. And, you know, we concentrate, you know, more, more on girls because again, I just feel like, you know, thinking of like those kinds of positions that are out there when you're passing by these facilities, you know, and I'm thinking, you know, you put on a hard hat, you put on steel toes and it's a construction job or it's a, you know, manufacturing And those have always been, you know, more like male, more male representation there than female. And so girls really wouldn't even like think about it. Right. And so I think it's really, again, just that awareness factor and the exposure to it.

SPEAKER_02: 14:41

Yeah, because there's a lot of jobs in energy or manufacturing construction that, you know, don't have to be physical hands on. Right. So.

SPEAKER_05: 14:53

Absolutely. Because that's one of my things. And I talk, you know, I do a lot of presentations at schools and. talk to girls, share my own story. And, you know, I get in there and I'm like, okay, you know, y'all might say, Stephanie, this is South Texas. Nine months out of the year, it's 120 degrees outside. I ain't trying to go work out there, you know? That's okay too. That's okay. If you want to, hey, we want to help you explore those careers. But again, there's so much, so many other positions that help keep these companies going, right? And so we do talk about those as well. And I kind of like take some of those main interests and show them how they can apply them, right? Like, oh, you thought maybe you'd want to be a teacher one day. You like helping people, helping them learn. Well, employee learning and development, training. Maybe you're thinking of the medical path, right? Well, a lot of these companies have their own nurses on staff. They have occupational safety and health. This is one of my favorite ones to say. I'm like, y'all like shopping? They're like, oh yeah, we love shopping. I'm like, hey, they need shoppers, right? They don't call them shoppers, but again, but how can we help them take their interests and apply them to our industry?

SPEAKER_02: 15:58

Really? Reframe the conversation. Reframe it.

SPEAKER_05: 16:00

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02: 16:02

So the one thing I was thinking about was you say you do, we do K through 12, right? And so I was thinking what, maybe you could share with us, what would kind of the, what would the outreach you would do with like elementary versus middle school versus high school when we're talking about like such a large grade level?

SPEAKER_05: 16:25

And I'll tell you, we are definitely learning as we go Yeah, absolutely. They look so cute. And she's like, hey, could they do this? And I was like, well, how old are they? Four and six. And I was like, oh, I said, well, she's like, I'll stay with them and help. I'm like, sure, come on, let's do it. I will tell you, those little girls were, they were on it. They loved it. They absolutely loved it. And so then I was thinking, okay, we need to start a little bit earlier. What other things can we do? So again, we are learning, we are a work in progress, but our main element elementary initiative is children's books we started a line of women in industry children's books and our first one was lily the lab technician talks about about what it's like to be a lab technician for a chemical manufacturer marcella the millwright was our next one talks about what it's like to be a millwright for an lng facility and then we have uh emmy the estimator so yep you're out there you know what does it take to build a house well you got to know material you need you need to know how much it's going to cost and then we have our our most recent one was Camila the caulker this one's a very unique one because it is actually a real person Camila the caulker she lives in Australia and yeah so that's a really cool one that we got done

SPEAKER_02: 18:12

is that like an insulator or something no

SPEAKER_05: 18:15

she's actually more along the lines of sealing like sealing she'll go in and like seal around whether it's a pool whether it's bathrooms whether it's tile whatever it might be she's a caulker she goes in and that's her specialty yeah Yeah. And then we got a couple of more in the works. We have a process technician one and an instrumentation technician one that are going to come out in the next couple of months. And so that is like, you know, our where we would, you know, just whether we have a volunteer that says, hey, you know, I want to, you know, do something with my local school. Well, here, take our book, go in and do a story time. Right. Or when we launched Camila the Calker, we did a little workshop where girls and we did it with a Girl Scout group, which was really cool. But they built or they first decorated a tile. like a little inspirational tile. And then we showed them how to use a caulk gun and then they actually adhered it to a little wood, piece of wood and they caulked around it and we sealed it off. And so that was a really cool little workshop we did. And so, yeah, we're just kind of like just seeing what happens really, you know, we never know what we're going to, you know, and what I've seen in these last couple of years is like our industry partners will come to us and just say, hey, we'd like to do something for our local school. Can you help us put something together? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I would love to. And so, but yeah, it could be as simple again, as, you know, getting one of our books off Amazon, they're available on Amazon and just going into your local elementary school and doing a story time. One of the most important things though, it was important to me in the books to really clarify and really help like the reader, the children understand what does this company do, right? What do they make? And then how does it translate right into their everyday lives? Right. And so that's a really important part of the books because again you know i i really want our next generation to know um what we're doing how we're doing it why we're doing it and um get excited right get excited about coming in working for us one day yeah

SPEAKER_02: 20:11

i think when you at the beginning when you're talking about power i think that's a an easy one at least in my mind even for like our local power system you know we use all these natural resources how how do you get power from the natural resource to the plant, to your house, you know, and all those steps along the way, there's women in industry, there's men in industry that are, you know, fueling all that and providing those services. And you're probably driving around them every time you go to the grocery store, you're driving by someone who supports that industry or you're, you know, driving past a refinery or something that is in the industry.

SPEAKER_05: 20:52

Absolutely. Yeah. And that's what I really want them to know. And one important thing that I always mention and I'll do presentations. I'll do some like for this one's for the gals, like it'll be for girls. And then I'll just go into the school and just talk to a welding class, an instrumentation class, a millwright class. And I always make it a point to tell them, you know, you may not come out of your degree program or your certification program and go and work directly for like the major manufacturers, right? Like the Exxons, the Valeros, like, you know, it maybe, maybe, but if you don't, don't get discouraged. Because these companies supplement their workforce with contractors, right? And so look to those contract companies to kind of, you know, help you get started and get your experience under you. Because I'll tell you, more often than not, you know, when they do open their permanent positions at those sites, who are the first people they look to, right? The contractors that have been there that know their site that they know, and that in itself is huge. And so I always make sure to kind of like help them understand that part as well. Yeah,

SPEAKER_02: 21:58

and I think the story about your husband saying that they're bringing people in, the electricians, I mean, that's not an uncommon story kind of throughout the U.S. from what I gather. The more education, the more job experience, the more valuable you're going to be.

SPEAKER_05: 22:33

And

SPEAKER_02: 22:33

definitely no shortage of work.

SPEAKER_05: 22:35

No, there is not at all.

SPEAKER_02: 22:38

What challenges would women face maybe that would be different from men and kind of how might they overcome that? I mean, we'd like to say maybe there's not. But yeah, what challenges are there? And then maybe what jobs do you... maybe see women more better suited for than men?

SPEAKER_05: 23:01

So I think one of the most exciting things that's happened since the start of this one for the gals, whenever I wanted to do an expo here in our area, you know, I went to who I wanted to be the title sponsor for this first one and said, you know, I really believe in this initiative. I really think it can have a huge impact in our area. And I know if y'all sign on, right, it'll just like everybody else will just come, right? And they believed in it. And they said, yes, we'll be your title sponsor for this first one. And so as a title sponsor, you get to have one of your employees to be the face of the expo, right? And so we're putting her on billboards. We're putting her on all of our program, our everywhere, right? Just kind of like spotlighting her everywhere. And so they chose a female millwright. And she was a graduate from one of our local schools, got her two-year degree, and then had been with them for about five years at that point. So I was like super excited. I'm like, oh, yep, exactly. This is the stories right here. We need to tell, you know, hometown, went to school, stayed here, bought a house here. She just bought a house. Like it was just great. The second one, our second conference expo, at that first one, I already had one of our industry partners come up to me and say, hey, next year, we are going to be your title sponsor. I said, okay, y'all got it. And so that next year, and they had told me who they were thinking of it being. And I know her, she's a process operator. And her story was a little different. She She had been in like the banking industry for I think about nine-ish years, was married, had two little girls, decided she wanted something different, went back to college, got her two-year process technology degree and now was an operator for them. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, she'd be perfect. I love it. And so when I announced the save the date, she texted me and she was like, oh, I'm so excited to see the next expo coming up. I probably won't be there. I just found out I'm pregnant with my third baby and I'm due like two days before your expo.

SPEAKER_00: 24:57

And I was

SPEAKER_05: 24:59

like, yeah. And so, but I was like, please let them still pick her. Like who better to represent than her. Right. And so a couple of weeks later she texts me and she's like, oh my gosh, they just asked me to be the face of the expo. I told them, I told them my situation and they said, well, that's even better. You know, that's great. Yes. And so I put a pregnant process operator up on billboards across the coastal bend, you know, And yeah, she did have her baby a couple of days or about a week or so before Expo, but we did FaceTime her during it and we said hello to her and everybody got to see her. But that right there, right, was so important because again, I think that's another reason that women might shy away is because they don't feel like they can do both, right? Like have a family, be in these industries, be in these careers. And I'm like, you can, your company is going to support you through every stage of life. So while she was pregnant, obviously she wasn't out Yeah. you know, careers. And even if you're in a shift work type of job, right, that doesn't have to be forever, right? There are other things that you can move on to and do. And, and I think we just, again, need to keep talking about it, keep creating that awareness and just really letting them know that like, you know, you can, you can do it. You can have it all. You can.

SPEAKER_02: 26:46

Yeah. No, I see a lot of girls that are women that have, like you said, had kids, you know, have their, their maternity leave or whatever, come back to Potentially more flexible shifts, whether that's like part time remote or in the office. And I think if companies are taking the long term view of an employee, you know, and that they're, you know, it has to be beneficial for the employee and the company, obviously. But if they're both willing to, you know, work together, I think you can really it can work, you know.

SPEAKER_05: 27:20

Absolutely. It really can. And that's even so myself. I have people ask me all the time, right? Because I still work. I started the nonprofit. I have kids, a family house, all this kind of stuff. And they're always like, Stephanie, oh my gosh, how do you do everything that you do? And I'm like, look, y'all, my life right now versus 10 years ago looks completely different. My boys are 21. They're kind of grown and gone. My daughter is 16. She helps me keep it together. I'm like, my life looks different, right? And so yeah, 10 years ago, there's no way I could have done any of this, right? Like, I mean, maybe, but it would have been crazy. And so I think we need to give ourselves grace through all of those stages of life, right? There are going to be times where, yeah, you can focus more on your career and going back to college and getting on major projects and all this kind of stuff. And then there's going to be times where, hey, you know what, where you're at, you need to spend more time at home or being able to attend school events or doing this and that, right? And your life's going to, you know, go, it's not going to be one straight path. And so just kind of giving yourself grace through all of those periods, because again, Again, you know, where I'm at in life right now, I do have more time to, you know, be able to devote to the nonprofit work and to work late nights and to be on this major project. Right. And again, you know, life's going to look different, but your your company will support you through every season.

SPEAKER_02: 28:43

Oh, you talked about you had nine nine schools that you worked with before. How many schools or how many schools do you have? And then how many I mean, like your your sponsors and stuff probably come and go a little bit. But how many schools and how many sponsors? Maybe you have staff now. What does that kind of look like? So we don't have

SPEAKER_05: 29:03

staff.

SPEAKER_02: 29:06

It's you and my daughter.

SPEAKER_05: 29:07

Yeah, me and my daughter and my husband. No, I have a huge, huge network of volunteers that, you know, so I'm more of the planner, right? And I really stayed really close to the vision I had because this could easily just, it could grow and grow and grow. continue to grow. But I'm like, you know what? I really want to focus. This is my focus area. This is really where I feel we'll have the most impact. And so just really sticking to that vision because, you know, there were people would come along and be like, Hey, why don't you do this? Or, Hey, why don't you do that? Or add this, add that. And I'm like, Nope, Nope. This is the vision we're sticking to it. And even when we go to different regions of Texas, right? It's a copy and paste. Like we're going to take what we're doing here. We're going to pick it up. We're going to copy it. We're going to paste it in different areas and keep it pretty much the same, just different audience. Right. And so that's worked really well for us as And so initially, yes, it was nine schools that went to the trip in Galveston, which we still do. That is still part of our high school initiative. We still get girls to that Galveston Expo. We still, again, because it's really important for them just to get out and away and see different things. And now we incorporate like a group dinner. We incorporate like visits to our industry partners. Say if it's a midstream company and their headquarters is in the Houston area, they'll offer an opportunity for the students to go by their corporate headquarters, learn about all who they are. what they do or if they have a facility over there they'll give them a tour and so we still do that event and then our first expo here in the coastal bend and i'll tell you as i got started even with that first group of nine schools i knew if i got one here there was another one right here and if i got that one there's another one right there and another one and i'm just like oh my gosh this need is so great texas is so big you know and i almost got like a little sad because i'm like man i really want everybody to have an opportunity um and one of my mentors she's like stephanie just start where you're at just start where you're at and it'll grow and that is the best advice i could have gotten because now it's no longer like how many can i reach personally or even this one for the gals can reach personally right it's for other people to see what we're doing and say come help us do that for the girls in our community help us connect and it you don't necessarily have to start your own non-profit i've seen the smallest of initiatives create huge impacts. And so, and so that's really what's happening now. And so our first expo here in the coastal bend. And so the coastal bend has over 50 high schools, insane, but we're like, okay, we're going to do it. And so we invited, I think at our first expo out of the 50, we probably had about, I don't know if we made 30, you know, cause it was new and they were still trying to like, what is this? Cause even, so you mentioned challenges earlier, right? That first group I wanted to get to Galveston, the girls were not lining up. They didn't know what it was. They're like women in industry. What is that? You know? And so I had to go into each school, give a presentation, share who I was, share my own story, kind of like get them excited. Like, yeah, I want to go on this trip. Now we're like at capacity all the time. But yeah, that was part of that first, you know, outreach and like just building the foundation. And so we outgrew our original venue from one year to the next with our expo here in the move to a bigger one. And so this past year in our 2024 Expo, we had about 48 of the 50-ish high schools attend. We had almost 500 students and educators. Yeah, it's grown. It was really one of those things, build it and they will come.

SPEAKER_02: 32:50

So how many staff are like, they're all showing up independently to this expo?

SPEAKER_05: 32:59

The schools are like our volunteer base.

SPEAKER_02: 33:02

Okay. And they're sponsoring. They're finding their own resources to get people to go.

SPEAKER_05: 33:07

So for the schools, for our big expo, it's$20 per student and chaperone. And I went back and forth of like, should we charge? Should we not charge? But I really wanted the schools to have some investment because I thought if we offered it for free, then maybe they'll show up. Maybe they won't. And So yeah, so it's$20, but again, it's a full day. They get breakfast, lunch, ton of swag, door prize. I mean, it's t-shirts, like it's, they get a lot of stuff. And so, but, interesting fact is that the last couple of years i've had all schools all schools sponsored by an industry partner so they'll pay they'll cover their fees to attend because our industry partners will will sponsor the event and then they'll be like well what else can we do what else like we'll sponsor a school you know and so i tell the schools just transportation that's all you need to worry about transportation get them there and back same thing for galveston i'm like everything else is covered your hotels your conference tickets your meal the night before just get them to us and get them back home. And that has been a really great relationship with the schools that we've started, a really great model for us to go work to develop again. And so for our workshops, yeah, they're free to attend. They don't have to pay or anything for those as well. And yeah, that's kind of how we've been kind of working it.

SPEAKER_02: 34:25

Yeah. I mean, you've kind of lined it out here, but if someone else is wanting to do this in their area of the country, what's some advice that you would... give to them. Same thing, like reach out to your high school. I mean, how do you kind of manage partners in the venue and some of the activities and stuff that you do with them once they get there?

SPEAKER_05: 34:48

Right. And so, yeah. And I don't think there's like an easy answer because again, every area is different. Industry is different in, you know, Central Texas versus the coast versus further South Texas versus North Texas. Right. So again, still kind of learning as we're going But at the end of the day, the vision is still the same, right? Create awareness, get exposure for girls and careers that nobody really talks to them about, right? And so I guess my advice would be, don't be afraid to start small. And like I said, it could be as simple as, you know, your schools are having career fairs. I promise you that. Your schools want you to come. Or

SPEAKER_01: 35:27

they should be.

SPEAKER_05: 35:28

Or they should be. And if they're not, you know, maybe we need to kind of like help that area. But yeah, if they're having a career fair, Show up and share who you are, what your company does, what you do. Or again, get one of our children's books, go do a story time. One thing I've also kind of seen develop is, and as I mentioned earlier, is that our industry partners, they want to do things like this. We want to be able to engage with that age group, but we just really didn't know how. What do we do? How do we start the relationship? How do we do it? And that's it, right? Again, just I even had one, one counselor told me, she's like, yeah, I went up to, you know, one of our local industry partners. I stopped by there the other day and they wouldn't let me in. And I'm like, well, you can't just show up.

SPEAKER_00: 36:19

You got to

SPEAKER_05: 36:19

at least call and make an appointment. Right. And so, yeah, helping them again, navigate that and figure out, you know, how, how to work together and things that they can do. But yeah, I, my suggestion would be again, start like, you know, check with your local schools. Do they have a career fair or career day or, or presentation, that opportunity. Because I'll tell you... I have a lot of schools that come to me and ask me, hey, will you come do a presentation? But anytime I've asked a school, like, hey, can I come do a presentation and share information about this, that, whether it's on my work side, right, talking about our project and helping them learn about our project, or if it's about this one for the gals and talking about, you know, what we do, how it started, how it's going. I've not heard a no. It's always, oh, we'd love to have you stop by. We'd love to, you know, give information and, you know, so they would welcome opportunities like that. But again, it's not a relationship that happens overnight. And I'll tell you, even the first trying to get a group to that Galveston Expo, yeah, I ended up getting nine schools. But I'll tell you, man, there were some schools I literally had to keep like, okay, this person didn't respond. Let me go check with this one. That one didn't respond. Let me call. And then I was like, Ms. Superintendent. And then that one was like, are you serious here? Let me get you in contact. And so again, it takes work it takes effort it takes time and just persistence but I knew how important this conversation was and I did not want to give up and I'm like no I got this opportunity for y'all it's free like all you have to do is get them there and just just keep at it you know because again we're expecting like our educators to help you know our students learn about careers with us when the educators don't even know who we are what we do you know and so Yeah, but

SPEAKER_02: 38:13

there's a I know, like you said, a lot of industry partners to probably have their own kind of industry appreciation days where, you know, they do some sort of public outreach that I guess that would be one of my recommendations of if you're not comfortable kind of being and talking around people and everything that might be kind of a first step to is go go with your company. Yeah, get involved with your company. You know, current

SPEAKER_05: 38:50

outreach stuff. our money, our resources, what do they need? And I was like, say less, like, yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 39:18

I can do that.

SPEAKER_05: 39:20

And if somebody, if somebody would have told me, you know, while I was in high school that I could have a career working for a company where I, where my whole job in existence was to find ways to give back to my community on behalf of the company.

SPEAKER_00: 39:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 39:35

I would have been all over that. Right. But again, you know, and so I'm telling you, even whether it's in my my day job or my nonprofit work. I love what I do. I am so blessed to be able to have a front row seat to all the change that's happening to all of the, you know, I mean, just to really help. I mean, obviously specifically girls because this one's for the gals, but just our kids in general, our kids in general learn about these companies that are right outside their back door. Because, you know, where I grew up, I grew up 20 minutes from like, you know, industry town, you know, manufacturers, oil and gas companies, nuclear plant. I did not know who they were, what they did, much less that I could ever go work there, right? And so again, I was that, oh, I got to get out of this small town mentality. And man, that's just not true. And I really felt if I would have known then what I know now, right, I could have stayed close to family and I could have stayed, you know, been successful and stayed where I grew up. I grew up in a great small town, but I just, you know, I didn't have that exposure. And so again, now that I know what I know, I'm like, all right, I got to tell these kids, OK, you don't have to move away to be successful.

SPEAKER_02: 40:47

Yeah. And you never know. You might be or when these kids show up, the first interaction they have with an adult that's prompting them. What are you going to do after high school? Because I know for myself, it was, you know, you have that conversation with your parents like, oh, what are you going to do? It's like junior, senior year. It's like, oh, man, what am I going to do? What's around here? What am I interested in? And so, yeah, exposure for sure.

SPEAKER_05: 41:15

And even so, you know, you always have like those aha moments where you're just like, and I have them all the time because I like, I give a bunch of talks, a bunch of presentations and I don't like rehearse because all of this literally comes from my heart. I've lived it. I've, and everything that I say, everything that I've developed has been from personal experience. And so I can talk about it all day long. Right. And so back in, I guess, 2021, when I was trying to, you know, get that first group together. And I was going and doing presentations at schools. And I asked this one group of girls if they knew anybody that worked at one of these manufacturing facilities, refineries, you know, and a lot of hands went up. I

SPEAKER_00: 41:56

was like, oh,

SPEAKER_05: 41:58

okay, cool. I said, do you know what they do? All the hands went down. And immediately I asked myself, do my kids know what I do? I don't think so. Have we ever sat and had a conversation of what do you do in your job and what does your company do? It starts at home, right? What are we doing to, again, share what we do and who we work with and things like that. And so I was like, oof, okay, yeah, I need to go on my part to help as well. So it's going to take all of us. It's going to take all of us working together from, again, starting at home to our education system, to our industry partners. It's going to take us all working together because we've been so siloed for so long, right? You had the crafts doing their thing, the apprenticeships doing their thing, the two-year programs doing their thing, the universities doing their thing. And to me, I'm like, I want everybody under one roof. We all have the same goal. We want to get our girls into the workforce. We need to start working together. That's kind of what my vision was. And I put it on a piece of paper and I'm like, all right, y'all are either going to do it or we're not going to do it. And boy, we've done it.

SPEAKER_02: 43:03

Yeah. Who do you see at your expos that are most active? in the community whether that's like kind of a craft or an industry or I mean my impression was that you know this was energy and chemical you know manufacturing kind of specific but you know as we've talked it's getting it's larger than that it's just industry in general so who's being the most participating the most I guess

SPEAKER_05: 43:36

so when I started I wanted of focus on construction, energy, manufacturing. Those were kind of like my top three. And then again, we weren't from this area, right? We moved here. We've been here five years now. This is year six. The maritime industry.

SPEAKER_02: 43:49

I was like,

SPEAKER_05: 43:50

what's that?

SPEAKER_02: 43:52

Yeah. Longshoremen and tankers.

SPEAKER_05: 43:55

Yeah. So I had to learn like, okay, what is the maritime industry? And so in these last several years, I was like, well, man, we really need to focus on that because the port of Corpus Christi, which is literally 20 minutes from where I'm sitting right now is the largest port. I mean, is the third largest port for crude oil export in the world.

SPEAKER_01: 44:16

Wow. In

SPEAKER_05: 44:16

the entire world. Yeah. I think you have like Iran, Saudi, or, you know, the Middle East countries. There's two of them. And then Corpus Christi, Texas.

SPEAKER_00: 44:24

Right.

SPEAKER_05: 44:25

And I even fact-checked that because I heard it at a luncheon and I was like, what? I fact-checked it too. And it did. It's the third largest port in the world for crude oil export. And I'm like, wow, when you live next to that, wow. you have got to help your kids learn about those careers, right? And so Porter Corpus Christi is one of our biggest supporters. And I also wanted to, again, focus on everything from, and it took me, and I'm going to, full disclosure, it took me forever to, to learn the difference between upstream, midstream, and downstream. It took me forever. Like my husband broke it down for me once and I was like, oh man, if somebody would have told me that from the beginning, that would have been perfect. So upstream gets it up at the ground, right? Midstream gets it to, you know, its processors. And then the downstream is what creates everything for us, like, right? It gets it into our clothes and our gas and all that. And I'm like, oh my gosh. And so now that's how I explain it. Yeah, that's funny. But to me, I'm like, man, especially here in our area, we're so industry heavy. I'm like, y'all, we can't forget about our little towns that are like within 30 minutes, right? Because that's opportunity for those kids too. And so I've been really successful in kind of like helping bridge that gap as well and getting opportunities for more smaller rural schools. And so for this school, I was like, man, I don't see a visible industry partner. And it was our first time even talking about it. And so it was hard to get just any random supporter or sponsor. And so I'm like, man, well, I pulled up a pipeline map.

SPEAKER_01: 46:41

Oh, gosh. And

SPEAKER_05: 46:43

I said, whose pipeline runs through this county?

SPEAKER_01: 46:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 46:47

And I'll tell you, I reached out to this one pipeline company and I said, hey, this is what we're doing. Would you be interested in helping? Man, they responded, said they're in our service area. How many students? How much per student and where do we send our check yeah you drive down there yep

SPEAKER_02: 47:04

you drive down the road and see their uh number on a valve vault or a site or something just call

SPEAKER_05: 47:11

that one yeah and so yeah and i would and i would say across all sectors like we're starting to see i mean we're supported by all of them one also one thing i've found one of our industry partners said something to me that i say is I put out into the universe as much as I can because it made so much sense. And it's a midstream company and kids don't really see them, right? Because they're underground, like they have a compressor station. It's like in the middle of nowhere, you know? And so they don't really get exposure to those midstream companies. And so she said, instead of doing these events, whether it's going to college recruiting fairs or outreach events and thinking like, we're going to come away with like two or three hires that are going to come work for us we just want to develop the workforce whether they go and work for us whether they go and work for you know industry partner a b or c we just want to develop the workforce and i'm like that's it right there that is it right and so because yeah it's going to take us all working together because even this last year i used to have one main sponsor title sponsor for our expo but this last year i was like you know this is a group effort and i want to show that we are all working together, right, to make this happen. And so I took that top sponsorship and I split it into three. And so this last year we had Valero, AEP Texas, and Tesla is building a lithium refinery right down the road. So those were our top three sponsors. And so I put three different women from each company on my billboard because I put it on billboards. And yeah, and so I'm like, that's what I want, you know, our community to see is like, hey, we're all working together. It's not a competition. It's not We want to help develop our workforce. We want to get engaged with our communities. And that was really successful. It was having three represented. But again, and I've also seen where industry has started seeing this sort of engagement and investment in that K-12 audience and their schools and their education programs. It's not just philanthropic. That's workforce development.

SPEAKER_00: 49:27

Yeah. And that

SPEAKER_05: 49:28

right there is the key, right? that right there we need to stop you know like just saying oh that's philanthropy no no no that you're developing your workforce because though that is your future workforce right there and by the like my daughter she's like she's a junior now but they get into sixth seventh eighth grade they're having to pick dual credit programs endorsements pathways or whatever they're calling them these days and and trying to figure out what classes are going to take in high school to you know like what are they going to be when they grow up how do we expect them to know at that age if we're not talking to them

SPEAKER_02: 49:58

yeah something that that's you think a student counselor would do but I'm sure you've noticed this as well is you might think that someone else is doing that work and then you get in there and you start doing it and you're like where is everybody oh now okay so it's me and then you start grabbing people and bringing them in and

SPEAKER_05: 50:19

right

SPEAKER_02: 50:21

these schools industry partners are looking for people to come in and help

SPEAKER_05: 50:25

100% 100%

SPEAKER_02: 50:29

are you able to not track, but how do you determine the success of your program? Are you able to track how many girls come in and how much outreach you do and then directly correlate that to, oh, this person went on and got a job in industry? Is that something you're looking or looking at managing?

SPEAKER_05: 50:53

Formally, not yet. It is something that I think is important because it doesn't stop when they graduate high school. It doesn't stop when they finish their certificate or their two-year degree or their four-year degree, because then it's like, okay, I got this. Now what do I

SPEAKER_00: 51:12

do? Where do I go? What do I

SPEAKER_05: 51:13

do? Right. And so again, how do we, until they're out there and get that first paycheck, right. And then from there, like what support is out there to kind of like, you know, I mean, companies have ERGs now that are, you know, I mean, so many different things out there to help support them again, as they're going through life and their career journey and all of this. Right. And so aside from, I mean, we do have our very first success story, which is really exciting. And I mean, full circle, like full, full circle. She was part of that first group that went to Galveston. One of the first school I walked, it stepped into like the first school I stepped into. She went to that Galveston expo and talked to a group of female instrument technicians. got kind of interested in that, came back home, found a dual credit program, but it was at another school down the road. And the good thing about our schools here is that if they have, say, 15 seats and only 10 of their students want to do it, they'll open those five other seats to area school districts to send their kids to.

SPEAKER_00: 52:14

And

SPEAKER_05: 52:14

so, yeah, that's really cool. And then, so yeah, her and her mom fought to get her into that program. And then her school bused her every day by herself just to go do this dual credit program.

SPEAKER_00: 52:24

She

SPEAKER_05: 52:24

graduated high school in 2023, continued pursuing her dual credit at our junior college, or her two-year instrumentation degree, and then got on as an intern through a contract company, right? We talk about those contract companies, at one of our local chemical manufacturing facilities here, one of our largest ones here in the area. And so she graduated with her two-year degree in December of 24, this past December, and then in January rolled over to a full-time permanent an employee because again they opened up their positions she qualified based on her experience her education she was able to apply and they hired her as a full-time employee and that is full circle like oh my gosh that was it right there right and uh when she got the job she called me and she was so excited and she's crying and i'm crying i'm like oh my god this is it right here this is exactly it right here and i asked her i said what did your mom say she said i don't know i called you first

SPEAKER_00: 53:25

i Oh

SPEAKER_05: 53:28

my heart. I was like, Oh, this is it. And then people ask me, Stephanie, how do you do all you do? How do you do that? I'm like, because of stories like that right there, that right there. And then I was like, call mom. I don't want to

SPEAKER_00: 53:41

get upset,

SPEAKER_05: 53:43

but, but that's it. Right. And so, and there's a couple other girls that, you know, I still stay in contact with and I still, you know, communicate with and still, they still reach out to me because I want to make sure that, you know, Hey, if y'all have any follow-up questions, please, you know, I'm, here i'm accessible i'm the one that answers my instagram i'm and answer my facebook emails all that but yeah to to actually start up some sort of to have some tools to kind of like again formally track that is super important and something we do want to develop here very soon but yeah we'll we'll see how it goes

SPEAKER_02: 54:13

but yeah no i'm not trying to ask you like any gotcha question or anything i just was thinking like oh yeah you know is that something that we're looking at as far as very specific tangible um result you know i could see where some of this you know we would put money into and it's like hmm where where are the results where are we like where's it going what's happening you know it's it's great but it's also fun to say like you did where this person went in on the the first trip to now you know working in a full-time position as an institute tech so

SPEAKER_05: 54:55

right and so even for some of our grants that we get, you know, they do, they want measures, right? You have to, how are you going to measure your success and what are you going to do? And what does that look like? And this, this, right. It hasn't gone as far as like how many are actually going out into industry. It's more of like when our surveys are, you know, at the beginning, we will survey of them at the beginning, kind of like, you know, the confidence level, how they kind of feel about exploring these even further. And so those sorts of measurements, because I'm telling you, it grew into something and I'm like, man, like I, uh how do we and and that's the other thing too is like and i say this all the time i'm like i want to grow the reach of the organization but not necessarily the organization itself

SPEAKER_03: 55:38

right

SPEAKER_05: 55:38

because again it's just information it's awareness it's you know things like that and so we'll see how long i can kind of like keep it like that

SPEAKER_02: 55:47

yeah how how much has social media played into that i mean that's seems like a common question it's

SPEAKER_05: 55:55

a necessary evil isn't it yeah it is a necessary yeah because and people tell me all the time oh my gosh i saw you on social see here i'm like y'all i i say when i make it big i'm gonna give me a social media manager that's gonna be the first thing i get but like we have to meet the kids where they're at and where are they they're on instagram they're on tiktok they're on all these different things you know and so so yeah we do have a social media presence like is it i mean it's it's not like huge but that is how we get the majority of our information out right and again it's just access awareness sharing resources one thing we're going to add to our website though here very quickly is again because one of our industry partners said hey is there anybody in you know we have a presence in all these other states is there anybody doing something similar to what you're doing in these states and I was like oh okay let me research that let me see there was a couple that I knew but as I started getting more and more into it I did find some other programs that are doing something similar and so I kind of put a list together And I sent it to them and I'm like, well, why don't I put this on my website as a resource? Right. And so I reached out to all of them and said, just introduce myself and said, Hey, I'd love to link your website on our resources page. So maybe somebody in Ohio wants to do something similar and you're doing that over there. Right. And so I've had some responses that say, Oh yeah, we'd love to. So again, like it's another thing because people ask me all the time, Stephanie, how can we help? How can we support? What can we do? And I'm like, exposure. It's just exposure. Like Just say our name in a room where it needs to be heard, right? Just tell people what we're doing. That's it. That in itself is huge for us.

SPEAKER_02: 57:33

Yeah. These girls that are coming in and taking advantage of your resources, are they primarily just, let's say, a single daughter at home? Are these people who their parents already work in industry? What's your kind of feel on where these girls are coming from and kind of like what's their awareness home life kind of

SPEAKER_05: 58:00

for the majority of our events like our expos going to galveston even the majority of our workshops we kind of leave it to the schools to pick who they are going to bring and but we really emphasize like hey you know i really want to make sure it's the audience is like the girls that would get the most value out of it, right? Not to say that, you know, but we have limited capacity. And so it's like, so we do leave it up to the schools to decide who would best benefit from coming to the event. And so that could be, you know, somebody that is in an engineering dual credit program, or it could be, you know, a girl that has absolutely no idea what she wants to do. And so, yeah, it kind of varies like that. But at the end of our expo, I always say, all right, y'all had a great time. Y'all had fun. go tell all your friends. And

SPEAKER_00: 58:54

they kind of

SPEAKER_05: 58:54

use them to like, hey, go tell all your friends. But yeah, that's kind of how we've been working things. But even then, I had a gentleman from the Texas Workforce Commission reach out to me. He said, hey, I happened upon your program. I see some of the things you're doing. He works in more of like a vocational, gosh, what did he call it? But in short, and it was boys and girls. His program is for boys and girls. But just kind of, I think Right. And ensuring they have the support and resources to graduate high school. And so he reached out and said, Hey, I, you know, kind of see what you got going on and would like to get, you know, some of my students involved and stuff like that. And so that happens to me a lot. Right. And I'm like, Oh, that's a great program you have going on. Thank you so much for reaching out to me. And then how can I bring more awareness to, you know, things that they're doing again, because you don't know what you don't know. And even in our expo, this past couple of years, years, we have our first year, we had education partners on one side. So that's your craft trainings, your apprentice, your two years, your four years. And then the other side was industry. So the employer side. And then the year after that, we we combined them into one big expo. And I incorporated resources, any sort of community resource, they may not need it now. But later in life, they find themselves in situations, we want them to know there's help and support. And so there was an organization called the Purple Door that helps women coming out of domestic violence situations. There's an organization called Esperanza de Tejas that helps women with diapers and formula. We'll bring in banks for financial literacy. We'll bring in organizations that have scholarship programs, tuition assistance programs. We even had a company and they reached out to me, but I was like, this is great. Yes, come. But they help first-time homebuyers, right? Navigate the process. I'm like, yes, please. Right? Because it Again, we want to get these students into high paying, stable careers, right? But we also want to help them learn how to manage their money. And because they probably, for some of them, not all of them, you know, are coming from a disadvantaged background and they don't know what they don't know and they don't know how to. And so we want to help create that space for our community resource partners to come and share the programs that they have as well.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:19

Yeah, I like that. That's awesome. holistic approach. Like you said, having, um, you're looking for a long-term employee that's got stable footing under them.

SPEAKER_05: 1:01:28

Absolutely. Absolutely. Takes a village.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:32

Yeah. Are there some of these industries that you can put your finger on and saying that they're like kind of growing or looking for crafts more than another, like from what you know, is there something that you would kind of. kind of push people in or make them more aware of because of the job opportunities or the quantity of job opportunities? Or it's kind of, would you still stay all across the board and just see what their strengths are? I

SPEAKER_05: 1:02:10

guess it does come down again to like your specific economy, like your industry, you know, because like here in the coastal bend area, right? Again, huge exporter of oil, starting to see a lot of different, like Tesla just opened up the Lithuania refinery they're building right down the road, starting to see a lot of alternative energy, like the energy transition and all the things that are happening with that. But I really feel across like when it comes, because even like my husband works, you know, at this huge facility and he'll come home and be like, oh, we lost another technician to, you know, this industry partner or that one or this one. Right. And they're moving, you know,

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:47

and

SPEAKER_05: 1:02:48

I think it's across the board, honestly. But I think if we, again, and I even tell our industry partners, because I'll do presentations, you know, whether again, to introduce this one's for the gals to them or, you know, or, or just in, in just conversations. Cause I have longstanding relationships with quite a few of them that have supported us from before we were even this one's for the gals. Right. Yeah. But I tell them, I'm like, you know, this next generation is different. They are different, right? They are looking to make a difference in this world. They want to work for a company that, you know, they could say, okay, you're paying your benefits. That's cool. But tell me what you're doing to make my world a better place and how I can contribute to that, that right there. And we need to show them how our industries do that, right? How these industries do that. Because again, I mean, it's exciting. It's an exciting time. It's an exciting opportunity and it's, it's life-changing career pathways for a lot of these, you know, students that again, especially in our smaller rural communities are, that are 15, 20, 30 minutes down the road from these large manufacturing companies, but yet either don't know they're there or don't feel like they have an opportunity. And I think it kind of goes back again to that mindset of, we just need to develop the workforce, no matter who they go work for, right? We're all working together, just develop this workforce.

SPEAKER_02: 1:04:11

Well, if people want to get involved with you or, you know, I'm sure donations are always welcome. We talked about before that, you know, like to do a, matching contributions to your organization. So, you know, I'll, I'll match, you know, if there's other people out there and they match$2,000 and, you know, I would make, I'd match that and give you$4,000. So where can they like meet, meet up with you or hear more about you, or I'm sure your website's a great place and then social.

SPEAKER_05: 1:04:47

Absolutely. Yes. So our website is www dot. This one's for the gals. dot com again if I would have known we were going to like grow like this I probably would have shortened it a little bit but I did buy an extra one so you can also get there by typing in www.toftg.com and we are across all the social media platforms again Facebook Instagram LinkedIn trying to be on TikTok but oh gosh that's just a full-time job that we're trying to do what we can do so if

SPEAKER_02: 1:05:21

you know anybody that and social media to reach out to you.

SPEAKER_05: 1:05:26

Absolutely. Yeah. But yeah, so I'm again, I'm not hard to find at all. And I would love to connect with anyone that again, you know, not just on the, you know, the work in the community or how can I connect with my local, you know, students, things like that, but also women. But one huge initiative we have is sharing stories, right? Sharing stories of women from all kinds of different backgrounds that have made their way into careers that they never thought they would be in, right? Sharing those stories is so important because I like to say this one's for the gals was built on a foundation of girls can't be what they can't see. And if we're not sharing and elevating those women and their stories, where does that inspiration come from, right? And so if there's anybody out there that wants to share their story, I would love to, again, connect with them and just help inspire the next generation. That's really what it's about. I really want girls, you know, we have a place on our website. It's called WII Gals, which stands for Women in Industry Gals. And it's just a place for girls to go and read these stories and just get some inspiration because I really feel like, you know, there might be a story on there that they can resonate with, that they can relate to and say, well, look at her, right? She did it. Maybe I can do it too. And that right there is huge.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06:42

Should they reach out just to the website or email or are you on this one's for the gals across all Sophia land? Pretty

SPEAKER_05: 1:06:50

much. Yes. Yeah, pretty much. But yeah, on our website, There's a contact page and it has it has my email. It has my cell number. It has drop us a line where it'll go directly into my inbox. So, yeah, there's yeah, probably our website, the contact page. Again, it has all of our information to reach out to me directly. Probably the best place.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:09

Did we forget anything?

SPEAKER_05: 1:07:11

Ask me, Stephanie, why is this so important

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:13

to you? Oh,

SPEAKER_05: 1:07:14

I did forget something. Okay, first ask me, Stephanie, why is this so important to

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:18

you? Why is this so important to you?

SPEAKER_05: 1:07:21

Because I'm that girl. I am that girl that I'm trying so desperately to help figure life out. I was a small town girl, came from a very humble home. My mom was a cake decorator for a local grocery store. My dad was an auto parts salesman. We lived a simple, simple life. It was amazing. But life is not simple anymore. And what got us by back then is not going to get us by now. And so, again, I just really want girls to know that there's so much opportunity out there that they can do it. And I really like to say, you can do hard things. And we're here to show you how. I also wanted to add in earlier when I was talking about how my life is different now. Okay. Maybe you don't even have to ask me a question. I'm just going to say it and then you can throw it in if you feel easy.

UNKNOWN: 1:08:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_05: 1:08:08

Anytime I go and give presentations, because I had one school invited me to come and give a presentation to all of their girls from sixth through 12th grade, like 300 girls. And it was like four different rotations, right? And I told my story four different times. And I am so honored to be able to do that for them to invite me in to spend time with their students. That is not lost on me. That is such a huge honor for me. But I always make it a point to tell girls. that this is not an I don't need a man initiative by any means at all. At all. I, well, when I said, you know, I'm that girl is because I left home and I went off to go find success in a big city because that's what I felt had to happen. But I found a husband. I got married very young. I had kids, twins, two boys, twin boys. And then I got divorced and I was a single mom with two little boys under the age of one. I had no post-secondary education. I had no training and a very feeble resume. And these two little guys that are looking at me like, what are we going to do? And so I went and learned AutoCAD drafting and design. I got a six-week AutoCAD certificate. It was like basic AutoCAD operator's course. I took that certificate and I walked into a job fair being held by Bechtel. No clue who they were. No clue they were one of the largest engineering companies in the world. My friend just said, oh, they're having this job fair. They're hiring. You should go in there. Okay. Oh, I walked into Bechtel's building in Houston with literally a six-week AutoCAD certificate in one hand and just a willingness to learn in the other. And by some... I don't even know powers. They offered me an entry level job that changed my life. And it opened my eyes to this whole world I never knew existed. And I feel like even if I did know it existed, I don't think I ever would have felt I could be a part of it. And that's why this is so important to me, right? Is because I... Found myself at 23 years old, like my life didn't look the way I thought it was. And I wasn't ready. I was not ready. And so that's what the main goal is, is instead of, you know, when life doesn't turn out the way they think it will, instead of being scared like I was, I want them to be prepared, have a skill set, have a career, keep moving forward no matter what life throws at them. Okay. So to go back to my other thing I wanted to say about that, I don't need a man initiative.

SPEAKER_00: 1:10:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:10:45

I got, I did get remarried and me and my husband And we just made 17 years this past year. And then we added a daughter to our family. Well, who do you think held the ladder? My husband, right? He was the one that was helping and supporting and encouraging. And while I was in my room at the 35-year-old trying to learn calculus, oh my gosh, he was shuffling kids to baseball practice and birthday parties. And I was writing term papers on the weekend. And again, it was a season, right? It was just a little while, but he's the one that helped me and I would not be where I'm at without him. So that's not what this is about. I really, like I said, I want girls just to be prepared, whatever life, life throws at them.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:50

Yeah. I appreciate, I don't, I don't talk to you. I don't get the impression that that is what it's about. You know, uh, I definitely appreciate you kind of coming out and, and making that, you know, forward facing more. I

SPEAKER_05: 1:12:06

do. And even whenever, you know, people ask to write stories or, or put something in the paper or this and this, I make it a point to say, okay, I do not use the term male-dominated, okay? I don't because, oh my gosh, they put it out on Facebook, one of our local stories, and it just... It just did

SPEAKER_00: 1:12:29

not go well.

SPEAKER_05: 1:12:31

And so I'm like, that's not what, because again, we're not just talking about like your skilled trades and you're like, it's across the board. Administrative again, whether you want to go get a, you know, learn a trade or you want to get your MBA or whatever. Right. We're all across the board because there's opportunity for everyone. But, but yeah, I really like to highlight that because I want, I want girls to know that you can have it all. You can do, you know, you can do the hard things. You can, get through life. You can get married, you can have babies, you can then raise families. You can do all those things and be in these industries and be very, very successful and be happy. Great place to be.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:09

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I appreciate your time today for coming on, chatting with me. Hope it was a good opportunity for you. Hopefully you got, you know, you get more awareness and more people that come knocking on your door as it is. So it was a pleasure to meet you and look forward to talking to you in the future. So if you ever need anything, then just reach out.

SPEAKER_05: 1:13:34

Thanks, Travis. I, like I said, this is my favorite thing to talk about was probably, I had a smile on my face the entire time, but again, I'm, I'm so humbled to like this, be in this, you know, to have a front row seat to like all this that's happening and all the support that's there. Cause even just telling the story of this one's for the gals and how it became to be and all the support that's there from industry partners and education partners and community, like even that just telling that story itself that has been huge for us because again we want other people to see that and say okay we need to be doing that like how can we do that here right yeah so yeah thank you for the opportunity and uh yeah look forward to chatting with you later

SPEAKER_02: 1:14:16

cool thanks stephanie

SPEAKER_05: 1:14:18

thanks