Hannah Birch nervously watched sparks fall to the ground as Patti Fedewa welded.
She knew that in a matter of minutes, it would be her turn. All the eighth-grader could think about were the sandals on her feet and the inevitable welding sparks.
"It's pretty safe," said Fedewa, who was a welder at John Deere Dubuque Works for six years. "You want to try it now?"
Birch studied the equipment for a moment.
"OK," she said quietly.
The Roosevelt Middle School student lowered a protective mask and started her first spark.
Birch was one of 15 local eighth-graders who attended an after-school career exploration program Thursday afternoon designed to expose girls to nontraditional careers.
Students will meet four times this month at Dubuque Hempstead High School to learn about nontraditional careers from the women who either have held one or currently are working in those fields.
The Dubuque Area Labor-
Management Council, along with John Deere and the Dubuque Community School District, created the program to give girls hands-on experience in careers such as aerodynamics,
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"The real plus in this whole program is having the women in the actual careers present," said Boyd Card, an industrial-technology teacher at Hempstead. "It's someone doing it for a living."
One of those women was Gracie Hessong, a test and instrumentation technician at John Deere.
"It's really important that we can catch these kids at a young age before those stereotypes are cemented," she said.
Hessong, who routinely talks to classes about nontraditional careers, helped show students the world of electronics through an exercise that allowed them to wire a short circuit.
"There is no such thing as a man's job," she said.
One of the girls she helped was Allie Queck, an eighth-grader at Jefferson Middle School.
"I just wanted to learn some of the basics of different careers other than doctor, police officer and teacher," Queck said.
Birch was glad she signed up for the free program that gave her an opportunity to weld her initials onto a sheet of metal.
"That's a nice weld," Fedewa said. "You didn't burn it through, so you did good."
Career Exploration - The Dubuque Area Labor Management Council holds its career exploration program for 8th grade girls at Hempstead High School on Thursday.
