Sheryl Alberico With NAWIC

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by On pay. Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Sheryl Alberico and Robin Echols with NAWIC, the national Association for Women in Construction. Welcome, ladies.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:00:48] Hi. Thanks for having us.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:50] I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. But before we get started, can you share a little bit about Naic? How are you serving folks through that organization?

Sheryl Alberico: [00:00:59] So NAWIC is a national association of women in construction, and it’s an amazing organization that supports women in construction. We’re seeing a lot more women entering the construction industry, not only in the office but in the field. And it’s been around for since about 1960, I think. And it started off with 16 members, and now we have 115 chapters, chapters across the country and specifically in Atlanta, Newark, Atlanta. We have about 182 members, and we’re the largest chapter in the nation.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:30] So what kind of happens at a NAWIC meeting or get together?

Sheryl Alberico: [00:01:35] So it’s it’s various things. It’s educational. So we do like there’s one event that we get together and we teach women how to read different blueprints. We get together and we help them with, you know, getting their LinkedIn profile updated and or getting new jobs, even to and just supporting each other with our stories. And we have mentorship as well too, and reverse mentorship. And then we also piggyback on to helping out a lot of women in the market, as well as far as charity events as well as as um, and specifically, Robin’s going to talk about one that we help out with with the block kids that we are promoting for February 5th. That’s coming up.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:18] Yeah. And before we get to that, can you share a little bit? Is this to encourage women to consider a career in construction? Is it for women who are already in construction to help them kind of up level and get to new levels, like what is the the mission of the organization as a whole is a combination of both, right?

Sheryl Alberico: [00:02:37] Yes, it’s a combination of both. And then it’s also there’s men that are part of it as well. We actually have a Wick week, which is Women in Construction Week and the last Friday it’s in March, first week in March we have wear Red day. So we have a whole bunch of men that are on the construction site that wear white, that red that are supporting women in construction as well too. And it’s just it’s it’s conversations. It’s awareness and support. Mhm. Yeah.

Robin Echols: [00:03:05] I think um, NAWIC is also educational too. There are many women that are in the construction industry that want to go higher up, maybe want to, you know, be in the upper level. And Newark has a personal development and education division where we call it PD and E, and once a month somebody volunteers. That’s in the industry that teaches to teach something that they know they already are doing to somebody else who doesn’t know it. And it’s not necessarily an age thing. You could be old or young or in the industry for a long time or just starting out, and it’s a good opportunity to perfect yourself, learn something new and feel more confident in the industry.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:43] Now. What’s the trend? Are more and more women entering construction? Because I would imagine that with the advent of so much technology, now that, you know, maybe 50 years ago, you had to have a certain strength or a certain amount of size in order to do some of the work. But now I would think that that’s not necessarily the case anymore. And there’s plenty of opportunities for people of all sizes and strengths to be in construction.

Robin Echols: [00:04:08] That’s correct. Yeah, it definitely is. I wear both, I wear heels and work boots in my position, so I’m on the job site and sometimes as a project manager, and I’m also in the office. And then I go to business development events as my business development role. And that’s wearing high heels. So it’s definitely a good opportunity to show all my strengths.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:04:34] So, you know, is that.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:35] Message getting out there are women considering are more and more women considering a career in construction?

Sheryl Alberico: [00:04:42] Absolutely.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:04:43] Yeah. The stigma around women working in construction has reduced drastically. And in addition to all this, the pay gap between men and women is relatively small. It’s still not equal, but I’m an architect by trade, and that’s a lot bigger gap, um, and compared to other industries. So we’re seeing a lot of women entering the construction industry, you know, as plumbers, electricians, welders, things like that too. And, and they’re welcomed. And we’re seeing more and more of it.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:11] And to that end, in order to help more people become aware of this career path and to and to give more information about it, you do this event called Block Kids, uh, some sort of competition. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Robin Echols: [00:05:26] Yeah. So, um, Block Kids is, like I said, it’s geared towards kindergarten through sixth grade, and the program is a national building program competition. It’s sponsored at the local level through Newark chapters and other organizations. This is an award winning program. It introduces children to the construction industry in an effort to create an awareness of, and to promote an interest in future careers in the construction industry. It’s open to all elementary school children in grades one through six, and it involves construction of various structures with interlocking blocks and three of the following items a rock, string, foil and they will compete and put something together. Uh, construct a project through no help of anybody else, just themselves. Be creative and they’ll be judged by people in the construction industry, um, that are there during the event. One on one, they ask questions and through that questionnaire mainly, and the project and how they describe the project, um, they are judged and they win cash money for it.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:28] So what’s the genesis of this idea? How to get started?

Robin Echols: [00:06:33] So years ago, um, so this is through the the Newark Education Foundation. And years ago there were back in night. It was 35 years ago, I think we had decided Cheryl, was it 35 years ago? Um, there was a a member in Biloxi and her granddaughter wanted to know more about construction. And so she taught her about it. And they the mother, the grandmother was part of a Newark program or had just started the Newark program. And, um, that granddaughter designed this entire event around Legos and interlocking blocks and stuff. And they started Block-heads.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:13] Wow. And it’s been going strong ever since.

Robin Echols: [00:07:16] Yep. And it’s won a lot of awards. It’s had presentations nationwide. I mean, all the chapters are involved with it. There’s 167 chapters. There’s 4500 members, um, as of 2017. And it’s growing even more now that we’re in 2024. Um, for, you know, we we hosted last year the largest ever block kids event, um, in the history of Blockheads. And what was it, 100 kids. It was 107 children. Yeah.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:07:46] Wow.

Robin Echols: [00:07:46] So yeah. And this year we are two, almost two weeks out or a little bit less than two weeks out. And we have 108 already signed up.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:07:55] Robin, you did a really good job last year of of having different judges in like in the construction industry, general contractors, specialty contractors, suppliers, you know, owners, architects and engineers, which was a really nice blend because all these kids had questions because they they don’t even know about these careers. They just think construction is driving a truck. Right.

Robin Echols: [00:08:17] So or laborers. Mhm.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:08:20] Correct.

Robin Echols: [00:08:20] Which um, and that’s one thing that I really pushed during the event when I do the presentation, is that construction is not just the guy with the yellow vest on, you know, it’s a plethora of things. It’s a lawyer that’s a construction lawyer that helps with the contracts. You know, it’s the people who are taking the drone pictures and taking pictures of what’s going on inside the building and, you know, x ray vision, the, um, AI stuff that we have now, the, um, all the digital type of things that the software developers, um, there’s a plethora of different parts to the industry that makes us all work together, um, to become, you know, these buildings that the community enjoys and everyone enjoys.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:02] So now how does how does the event work? Is it, uh, happening in schools all over the city, or are they all coming to one location to do this event? And is it, um, so so let’s start there.

Robin Echols: [00:09:16] Yes. Um, everybody so each chapter decides where and when they want to do it. It’s one event, one time, once a year. And, um, this particular one is held at South Forsyth Middle School in Forsyth County, um, this year. So and everyone will come there and we will, um, put, you know, we have a cafeteria and we’ll let everybody hang out in the cafeteria. And that’s where they’ll do their, their, uh, competition. The competition itself only lasts an hour. But after that, um, construction ready, who is a career evangelist? Really? And, um, curriculum and developing people for construction starting at kindergarten. They, um, have a contract. They are contracted with the Georgia Department of Education right now to go into the schools and teach curricula, um, that furthers careers in construction. And they will be there at the at this event as well. And they will head up our construction part of it, where they actually use hammers and nails and tools and they will, um, build an actual project themselves and actual craft. Each child will have their own. And their parents can help them. Their brothers and sisters can help them. And it’s really amazing to watch. Um, I have plenty of videos and pictures from last year’s event. It was really cool to see the parents engaged with their kids, and parents learned a lot of things too, that they didn’t know about construction that day. Um, had a lot of people tell me that, um, and then they so they leave with their 100 Legos and their craft project and an entire amount of information that they learned through different genres. Um, the hands on displays that we have with construction items there, um, the actual presentation by the actual, um, sitting with their judge, each judge has 3 or 4 kids each that they will talk with and discuss things and answer questions and teach them even more, and they’ll walk away with a lot of good memories.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:15] Now, is there like kind of one grand prize winner or is there, um, winners at different ages? Like, how how does that work?

Robin Echols: [00:11:23] So, um, there is a winner for each grade level, kindergarten through sixth grade, and then one of them will be the grand prize winner, and they will advance to regions.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:33] And then at region. Is that the next level? And then there’s a national or is this. Yes.

Robin Echols: [00:11:38] It’s regions. And then from the southeast region they’ll pick I think it’s three. And then those will go to National.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:46] And then you mentioned prizes. What is the what are they competing for.

Robin Echols: [00:11:50] So each chapter gets to decide what prize that they choose to give. Um our particular chapter gives $25 gift card for each, each age group. And then the grand prize winner will get a $50 card.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:05] Cool. So it’s, uh, it sounds like, you know, even if you don’t win, it still seems like a fun event, and you’re gonna walk away with a lot of knowledge and meet some other folks that are kind of along the same journey that you are on.

Robin Echols: [00:12:20] That’s correct.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:12:21] Yeah.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:12:22] And, Lee, we had so many great kids last year. They were so passionate about it and you’d be so impressed with they came up with and, um, Robin wasn’t there. That one girl, I think she was in fifth grade. She had this amazing project. It was like the whole ecosystem. And she was a lovely girl. And, um, we found out that she was temporarily homeless and, you know, just being homeless, she realized it’s so important that the community gets together and helps each other. And that was her project. And it was it was amazing.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:12:51] Um, yeah.

Robin Echols: [00:12:52] She did, um, I, you know, a lot of the children, we try to encourage them. One of the first questions we ask them is, who would use this? That what you’re building, you know, what is it for? Why did you think to build this and the things that the kids come up with, like, you know what, um, there’s in my, um, in my community, you know, not a lot of people have money for electricity. So if we could build a powerhouse really close to our houses, then, you know, maybe we could all share the electricity and our bills would be a little cheaper. Um, you know, I mean, they were. They’re thinking outside the box. They were thinking about community and how to help one another. And the boy that built a ramp so that the wheelchair could go into the house instead of, um, you know, just be not, you know, just a ramp. Who, you know, what’s the ramp for? Well, the ramp has a purpose. And, um, they were thinking, you know, just looking at their projects is not enough. You actually have to have the stories behind it and what the children were thinking about. And, you know, what do you want to be when you grow up? We ask them questions.

Robin Echols: [00:13:53] And what do you think that you used while you were doing this, you know, did you do you think this is science or pulleys or levers or you know, there’s different tools involved in this. You know how how many nails did you have to hammer, you know, in order to, to make this project work? And I mean, it’s interlocking blocks. So it’s it’s, um, an opportunity. I mean, it’s an opportunity for them to build things and create them in their own fashion, in their own way. Um, but with creativity and, you know, as they ask questions like, you know, but I don’t know how I’m going to build this. Why would I build this? You know, there’s pencil and paper right here. Why don’t you draw it out? Try to draw it out. Well that’s drafting, that’s blueprints. And now we’re going to put it, you know, together in these blocks. Well that’s modeling and that’s, you know, an actual mockup so people can look at it, make a decision. So you’re teaching the stages of construction within your small little 3 or 4 children right there in the group.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:46] So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Robin Echols: [00:14:51] Well, um. There’s. Sorry. I thought Cheryl was gonna jump in at this point, but.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:14:57] We need sponsors. We have quite a few, and we can read. Um, Robin, do you have the list of the sponsors to date? Do you want to read those out?

Robin Echols: [00:15:04] I can, um, I didn’t even think about that. That’s a great idea.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:15:08] You know what? I’ll tell him one more story. Quick story. We also had somebody there, um, oriole. And she owns her own construction company, and she’s African American and is a minority woman. Small business. But what’s great about her is she wrote, um, a children’s book, and she wrote it about this, um, girl, Connie, who’s a ten year old girl who loves building and dreams of being a construction worker, but her friends don’t understand her. And, um, she went through this whole book. Yes, um, last year. And the kids loved it. Um, so.

Robin Echols: [00:15:39] Yeah, that’s it’s a it’s a video, too. She’s got it in book form and then she’s got a video and we show the video at the event and it talks about how we’re we all have differing likes and that, you know, we should focus on those likes. And if you like to do these things, then find out ways to make those things happen in your life. And hers was construction. So, um, which is really good. It does encourage, you know, different, different types of people who maybe thought, you know, my mom wants me to be a doctor or something, but I really like construction. And, you know, maybe even the parents who are in the room listening to all of this stuff are like, oh, we didn’t realize, you know, there’s lots of different opportunities. So actually, Robin.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:16:19] One girl last year said to me, can you go talk to my parents and tell them I don’t want to be a nurse?

Sheryl Alberico: [00:16:26] Yeah, yeah.

Robin Echols: [00:16:28] I mean, it’s it’s we all have an idea for our children how we want our children to develop and achieve. And, you know, the biggest thing about construction that we try to push is that there’s all levels of achievement in construction. Um, whether you are, you know, um, a worker bee and, you know, or just, you know, really happy with being a worker bee or you want to be in management or you want to be in design, or maybe you want to just be, you know, somebody that actually, um, takes pictures of all of it and kind of puts it all together and surmises it. I mean, there there’s so many different avenues in construction that they can, um, they can look at and like I said, it’s it wasn’t just education for the children. It was education for the parents too.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:17:09] So. Right.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:10] And it’s important to open their mind to the possibility they, you know, you don’t want the parent to self-select the kid out, and you don’t want the kid to self-select out before they even know what it can be. So it’s important to educate and to let them know. There are so many facets to this and it’s so important and there’s so much opportunity here. Um, and you shouldn’t kind of, uh, quit before you begin.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:17:34] That’s right. Well, you know, and Lee, um, actually part of what Newark does is we go to job sites that are mostly women run, which is I’m still learning. You know, I love going to a job site and it’s, you know, all the electricians, the plumbers, you know, the site superintendent. They’re all women running it, which is it’s foreign to me to see that as well too. So I’m, I’m constantly learning and and realizing what the opportunities are out there as well.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:18:01] Um, so.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:02] One more time, when is this event and when can they apply for the event?

Robin Echols: [00:18:07] So the event is Saturday, February the 3rd. It’s from 830 in the morning until noon. Um, registration is open now. They can find it on Eventbrite, um website by typing in Newark block kids, block kids. Um, or they can, um, they can get in touch with me, of course. Um, and I’d be more than happy to get them involved, but that that, uh, link is open for them and they can it’s searchable in Eventbrite on there.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:40] And Newark is NYC, right? That’s how you.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:18:44] Correct?

Robin Echols: [00:18:44] Yes. And even if they type in, because I kind of did a search myself, if they type in block kids, um, it should come up, come up and block kids coming Georgia or Forsyth County, Georgia.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:57] And then, uh, if somebody wants to learn more about Newark, um, it’s Newark, Atlanta. Org. That’s the website.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:19:04] That’s correct. Mhm.

Robin Echols: [00:19:07] Um, we are looking for industry, um, leaders that may want to participate or get involved in this, um, to come and bring some touchables, um, whatever’s in their industry, maybe somebody that runs a paint company wants to bring some paint samples out. Um, you know, for the kids or somebody who, um, is in the electrical field wants to bring some, you know, electrical panel boards or something like that. Anything that’s touchable for the kids because I believe in different genres, teach great education, um, and for kids to be able to come out and look at it and really touch it and go, wow. So that’s what drawing is. That’s what is drafting and architecture work. And look at the awards they made. Look at these big buildings that they built and um, lots of construction industry. People have so many different things, even if it’s just hammers and nails and screws and things like that that can show a child, hey, this is what’s part of our, um, our industry.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:20:00] So it makes.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:02] It come alive. You know, it’s not their imagination anymore. They can see and touch it and it becomes real.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:20:08] Mhm.

Robin Echols: [00:20:09] That’s exactly right.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:20:10] And we couldn’t do this without our sponsors. I found it Robin. So I can read them out. Yeah. Sc southeast southeast scanning and cutting services. Sorry. It was X. You’re right X southeast I said that wrong a Live Oak construction supply company FMG general contractors fortune Johnson contractors Manhattan construction company is it Ali Cassetti brick Ali. Cassidy. Cassidy. Sorry. Um. Kaufman engineering’s memco staffing. Um, is it rights, construction and development.

Robin Echols: [00:20:49] Rights to construction.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:20:52] Rights to construction. Kratos equipment. Mhm. Um, and then Miller and Miller. Um, with the ABC of Georgia, that’s, uh, Neil Wilcove and Mark cleverly. And then last but not least, um, Eccles welding and Fabrication.

Sheryl Alberico: [00:21:10] Um.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:12] All right. Well, thank you both for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Robin Echols: [00:21:18] Yeah. Well, thank you so much for letting us share.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:21] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.