Ep. 510 Empowering the Next Generation: Inside the Future Construction Leaders Foundation
Rancho Mesa’s Alyssa Burley sits down with Azahalia Valez-Rosas, Executive Director of the Future Construction Leaders Foundation, to discuss how the organization is inspiring the next generation, particularly young women, to explore careers in construction through hands-on programs, impactful camps, and mentorship.
Show Notes: Future Construction Leaders Foundation, Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter
Director/Host: Alyssa Burley
Guest: Azahalia Valez-Rosas
Producer/Editor: Megan Lockhart
Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “Breaking News Intro” by nem0production
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Transcript
Alyssa Burley: You’re listening to Rancho Mesa’s StudioOne™ podcast, where each week we break down complex insurance and safety topics to help your business thrive.
I’m your host, Alyssa Burley, and I’m joined by Azahalia Valdez-Rosas, Executive Director of the Future Construction Leaders Foundation.
And today, we’re going to talk about the foundation’s mission and some upcoming events here in San Diego.
Azahalia, welcome to the show.
Azahalia Valdez-Rosas: Thank you so much, Alyssa. I'm very grateful to be here today. I'm very fortunate to have stumbled upon your podcast and I said, oh, this is awesome. I think this is a perfect time to talk a little bit about our mission and also our upcoming program. So thank you.
AB: Yeah, we're happy to have you. Now, the Future Construction Leaders Foundation is a San Diego-based nonprofit. So tell our listeners about the organization's mission.
AVR: Absolutely. You know, that's actually one of the reasons I got, I felt enamored of Future Construction Leaders Foundation because we have a clear and very vital mission and our mission is to advance programs focused on educating youth about the career opportunities in the construction and AEC industry. And this is all our focus is. We want to encourage them to pursue careers in the field. So very important to spread the word about our mission.
AB: Absolutely. So what programs are offered through the foundation?
AVR: We have quite a few programs and some of them focus on different aspects of education, but we start with our K-through-12 kids blocks. And those are important for us, you know, having a variety of students in different ages in a space where they can construct and build and feel a little bit more comfortable about learning about the industry.
We also have our camp middle school and that just passed this April, it’s usually in the springtime. You know, that's one of my first programs doing at the organization. And I just fell in love with the fact that it does do with the mission states, introducing youth to the sector, to the industry, and having them construct hands -on projects. And what they do every year is build the little libraries. So if you've seen in your community, little libraries posted, the likelihood of them being ours is pretty high. And we usually have about 30 kiddos in middle school coming to our hosted facility at AGC here in Lakeside, and they come in, they do warm-ups, they do all these wonderful introductions to our volunteers who are in the industry, and they do their hands-on project for three days.
And then, of course, our holy grail, our foundational program, which is coming up to its 17th year, are our Camp Teen Girls, is coming up in June. So I'm excited to talk a little bit about that.
AB: Absolutely. So this is my favorite question. Is there anything exciting happening in the upcoming future that you're excited about, that you want to let the community know about?
AVR: Absolutely. So Teen Girls Camps is obviously the one and I will retract a little bit. I have one more of our very important missions right is to offer collegiate and scholarships to students who are looking to fund their way into the education. That's actually integrated in part of all of our programs but very importantly I do want to speak a little bit about our upcoming camp because it's vital to our organization
and it's the long-running one so we're excited to say that you know June 16th through the 20th at the AGC in Lakeside will be hosting over 100 girls to learn how to build again. So the idea is to put them in project-based learning groups and they'll be learning a variety of things.
So the first one is our goal to empower them to use tools to feel comfortable learning to break boundaries and stepping into roles that are usually non-traditional for females, but also having them in a safe space during the summer when there's not a lot of after–school offerings in their surroundings or they may not have the opportunity to pick some that are affordable to them, which makes it even more better because our camp is free, our programs are free to everybody, so we welcome them with open arms. So we're excited to get our hands in there and just welcome everybody and of course send the powerful message that girls can do it.
AB: Yeah. I know it's coming up in a few weeks. Is there still space available or are you full?
AVR: We have space available and we're always looking to fill up our wait list. So please feel free to share our resources and encourage any high schoolers. So our camp will have the criteria of having onboarding girls that are in ninth through 12th grade. So if you're between the ages 14 and 18, we welcome you. We want you to, you know, be in a space where you'll be with youth around your same age. So we want you to feel welcome and motivated to learn.
AB: And if you're a girl who has participated in this event before, can you come back a second or third or fourth year?
AVR: Absolutely. We always welcome our journey women. So we are always happy to have you come back. And actually one of the things I would love to see our recurring participants is talk about their experience. I do hear it often about the wonderful impact that our programs have and that's something that I'm looking forward to. So, this is actually my first year running it and stepping into the role has been very, it's been quite an eye-opener of how important these programs are for our youth, particularly our females, that are not aware of the amazing power that comes when you're holding tools.
Like, I mean, I did it during the camp with the middle schoolers and I was like, "Oh God, I know how to do stuff.”
And it feels so empowering. Here I am an adult and thinking I would have benefited so much from this. And if I were to come back as a returning participant, I would love to talk about my experience and my projects and my collaboration with my team, right? Because that's the other part that is amazing about this program, is that you get to work in a team-based environment. And that's something that we want to motivate kids to use their words, to be communicative and ideate with each other.
AB: Yeah, you know, I've had the pleasure of going to the camp, or observing the camp twice over the years and just seeing the looks on the faces of the campers when they're just so proud of the skills that they've learned. I think I showed up one year towards the beginning of camp and then another year towards the end. And the first day, at least for me, it seems the girls are a little timid, but by the end of the camp, they are confident. They know what they're doing, they know what the tools are, they know how to use them. So it is really exciting to see young girls learning how to do these basic skills that really everybody should know how to do. But I know that it is leading towards more women in the industry. I have heard firsthand from participants who have gone maybe one, two, three years, and it has led them to look for a career in the industry. So I think what the organization is doing is amazing. It is opening up this industry to a lot of girls who may not have thought that this was an option. You know, using your hands and building something, that is such a great feeling. And so I really commend the foundation for doing what they're doing.
AVR: Thank you so much. I’m very happy to hear that and I know that you mentioned it earlier but it just gave me goosebumps to think that you’ve been here firsthand, you’ve seen it and your testimony is that you saw the beginning and the end and in-between there’s this monumental moment where you’re building that empowerment and that self-confidence. And it’s very important, as you mentioned, that we can all build, we can all do something. You just need the space and the right mentorship. And that's important too. We have an amazing team, an amazing pool of volunteers who look forward to this event. We just opened up our volunteer and it's already packed. It's already packed with returning volunteers who I say, “Thank you so much for volunteering,” and they come back as like, “Of course, I don't want to miss it. I would never miss it.”
So I think this is very important. I do want to make a call to action to please support us and check us out because this is a very, it's just a beautiful way to provide space for young females who are looking and exploring still thinking about what their future might look like and a whole week you can learn so much in a week you can build relationships and you can start planting seeds on in this in these girls.
And like you mentioned, they end up doing amazing things. Coming back, I think I've seen some of our videos, I've seen that a few people that come back, you know, they say, "I participated in camp a few times and this is what led me to become a project manager. I went to school for one thing, but I ended up in the industry as a project manager."
I think that's fantastic. That's the type of impact we want to make.
AB: Absolutely. So if listeners are thinking, “Hey, this is something I want to get involved with”, whether it's sponsorship or donations or volunteering, how can they reach out to you? How can they learn more about what you're doing?
AVR: Absolutely. Thank you for asking. And yes, I would love to say just go to our webpage, go to futureconstructionleaders.org and go to our programs. We have several programs right now, our focus is to, you know, support our Camp Teen Girls and so click on that and then explore the ways that you can donate. I mean, there's so many ways and find one that feels right for you.
AB: Yeah, so I'm guessing monetary donations are always accepted. Maybe, you know, tools or, you know, other items like that.
AVR: Absolutely. Yes, we welcome. And then if you can reach out to me. I can send out my email to be posted anywhere, but you can reach me at execdirector@futureconstructionleaders.org. And of course my name is Azahalia Valdez and I welcome any questions just for the future.
AB: All right well Azahalia, thank you so much for joining me in StudioOne.
AVR: Thank you, Alyssa. I appreciate you.
AB: Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne. If you enjoyed what you heard, please share this episode and subscribe. For more insights like this, visit us at RanchoMesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.