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Career women shared their lives and job experiences with area high school girls Tuesday.
The fourth annual Nontraditional Employment for Women Opportunities Workshop involved 175 high school sophomore girls from Fairfield, Tippecanoe Valley, Triton, Warsaw, Wawasee, West Noble and Whitko. Held at the Carpenter and Millwright Training Center, the event included keynote speaker Rita Price Simpson, round-table discussions and hands-on "try-it" demonstrations.
Phil Metcalf, career and technical director for Wawasee Area Career and Technical Cooperative, said the NEW Workshop has improved in its four years. "We're better at this," he said. "Things run a little better."
Along the way, he said they have tinkered with it, but not much has changed. Most speakers return every year, and Metcalf said they've only had to replace about five or six speakers. Most schools don't have to sell it to their students as junior students will tell the sophomore girls to attend. "Word of mouth really sells the program for us," he said. Other school corporations also are copying the workshop co-sponsored by the Warsaw and Wawasee area career centers.
Metcalf said they have a good committee that puts it together, and the hard part is getting the speakers and getting them there. However, he said, they usually don't need too many new ones each year.
Some of the students have landed jobs through the professionals they met, while some of the career women become mentors to the students.
"There's a lot of byproducts from this we didn't realize in the beginning was going to happen," Metcalf said.
One reason the workshop is offered to sophomore girls is because there aren't a lot of careers men can't pursue. For women, they tend to think only of careers relatives in their families have held, and they don't know there are other opportunities out there for them. Part of the workshop, Metcalf said, is to open their eyes to the possibilities.
During her speech, Simpson told the students how she got her start in radio broadcasting as a Bourbon High School junior in 1959.
It started out as her just wanting to sing on a live show. She auditioned, but was told she would either have to do the show for free or sell advertisements. She found her first sponsor.
After a year, she wanted to expand her radio career. She became a disc jockey, sold commercials and read them on air.
In the late 1960s, WRSW expanded to sports and Simpson was asked to sell ads and read them at the games, which she did. Then she was asked to do the interviews, which she did. Eventually, she was doing commentary for games.
"That's how it all started," she said.
Then the 1975-76 girls basketball season happened. "My fate changed abruptly," said Price Simpson. The Warsaw Community High School girls basketball team won the first girls Indiana High School Athletic Association state title, and Simpson was with them all the way.
Now Simpson does commentary for about 65 sporting events a year, and recently was inducted into the Indiana Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.
In closing, she offered the girls two pieces of advice. She said what you do will have a positive or negative effect on people you work with, "so you want to be positive." Secondly, she said, "I challenge you to look in your own backyard. ... You don't have to look too far away for your dreams to come true."
Among the 28 women presenters were Channel 16 meteorologist Cindi Clawson, truck driver Wanda Davis, firefighters Janelle Fancil and Shirley Fetrow, animal trainer Deb Hohman, welder Phyllis Malis, surgeon Laura Morris, architect Mary Ellen Rudisel-Jordan and Indiana State Police Senior Trooper Ann Hampton.
Hampton said there are 1,200 ISP officers, but only about 60 of them are women. She talked to the sophomore girls about what it is like being a female in a career that's mostly men and the difficulties involved. There is no leniency for women during training, she said.
She first knew she wanted to go into law enforcement in eighth grade. Before becoming an officer, she started out as a dispatcher to get her foot in the door. "That helped a lot," she said. In December, she will celebrate 11 years as an officer. She also told them that even after they get their police academy diploma, they constantly must get more training.
This is the fourth year Hampton has been a part of the NEW workshop. "It's been a pretty good program," she said.
Asked what they wanted to get out of the workshop, Tippecanoe Valley sophomore Melody Hoffer said, "Finding jobs I'd be more interested in than the daily woman jobs." Hoffer was interested in listening to the surgeon, animal trainer and radio broadcaster.
"That girls can do any jobs they want," said Whitko student Jenna Tackitt. She was most interested in talking to the animal trainer and optometrist.
"Just more information on careers, things that women usually don't do," said Matraca Prater, Warsaw Community High School student.
Prater said she wants to be a fighter pilot because "just the flying, I guess. Just the whole aspect of being up in the air." She wants to be accepted into the Air Force Academy, but also is considering the Navy.
Along with talking to the pilot at the workshop, Prater also spoke to the women involved in ministry and automotive.
