A program returning this month to the Golden Isles College and Career Academy aims to help young women explore career opportunities they’ve never considered.
GICCA, Coastal Pines Technical College and the Golden Isles Development Authority will partner again to offer This Girl Can program at the Career Academy.
This Girl Can introduces female students in eighth and ninth grades to career opportunities in manufacturing, engineering, welding and construction during a three-day workshop, which will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 21, Feb. 23 and Feb. 28.
“The whole point of This Girl Can is to drive interest in some of our pathways, the ones that are underrepresented professionally for women in our community,” said Brian Weese, CEO and workforce strategy leader at GICCA. “We want to encourage more female students to be engineers, welders or work in automotive repair.”
Women working at Georgia Pacific, Gulf Stream and Jered will be speakers during each workshop. They will share their career stories and offer advice to student participants.
Girls are asked to sign up for the program with a female mentor, often a family member, who will attend the workshops with them.
Each night of the program will include dinner, a presentation from the speaker and time spent in the lab at GICCA getting hands-on experience in one of the three pathways.
This Girl Can was first offered in 2021. Weese said its success is evident in the increased enrollment numbers in these three GICCA programs.
“This Girl Can was a good experience,” said Ansley O’Quinn, a sophomore student who is now in the welding program at GICCA and who participated in last year’s This Girl Can workshop. “You get to learn something that girls don’t typically do. I love welding.”
This Girl Can aims to introduce young women to career paths that they may not see many women working in, Weese said. These careers, though, offer high salaries, strong benefits and other advantages.
“Research shows that individuals who choose career paths based on their abilities and interests experience great job satisfaction,” said McKenzie Padgett, director of business development for the Golden Isles Development Authority. “This is a tremendous opportunity for young women to experience the wide variety of careers available to them here in the Golden Isles, and to hopefully find interest in a career they wouldn’t have found otherwise.”
Girls may see these pathways as a boys’ club, Weese said, but This Girl Can introduces the classes to them in a comfortable and welcoming environment.
‘It gives them the opportunity to try some things out and say, ‘Hey I can do this,’” Weese said. “Then they can come back and enroll in one of our programs for the next two years.”
The program is free, and those wishing to register can call Weese at 912-280-4000 ext. 4205.
“If you have a girl in eighth or ninth grade, this is a great opportunity to come out and try these things out,” he said. “The whole point of GICCA is to help spark an interest in different areas, and hopefully girls will find that this is a good pathway for them.”