OVERLAND, Mo. — Men have always dominated the construction business, and one of St. Louis' largest firms has been on a mission to change that.
On Thursday, Clayco invited 75 young women from schools across the St. Louis metro area to its state-of-the-art campus on Innerbelt Business Center Drive in Overland.
'Bring a Girl to Clayco' Day allowed students to learn about the real estate, design and construction process, "from negotiating the land purchase to winning the job to designing the project and building the structure."
Riley Fitzgerald, a junior at Webster Groves High School, said she was highly engaged as she and her group went from station to station.
"I'm really looking into marketing, business administration management. And I have like a lot of interest in like interior design, graphic design."
"I'm really interested into getting into real estate after high school," added Addison Dequasie, a junior at Columbia High School in Illinois.
Clayco is a perfect landing spot for all of these dreams.
Fitzgerald got to meet the women-led marketing team at Clayco, see how they create items, and ask questions about their career paths.
"I'm a really hands-on person, so you know doing something all the time not just sitting at a desk all day every day," she said.
Dequasie, whose mom is a longtime realtor, was intrigued by the session led by a few women leaders in the legal department.
"It talks about disputing contracts within Clayco and construction and I think that would be interesting," she recounted.
A 2023 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics says about 10.8 percent of construction workers are women. Robin Artis, vice president of Project Development and Chair of Clayco's Now Network of Women wanted the young women to know that they can be a part of increasing that number.
"Seeing is believing. Seeing the brilliant women that we have doing brilliant things. I think is just a very great case study that they [the students] can do it too," Artis said.
This is the fourth year Clayco has held the interactive learning day for exposure and Thursday's group was its largest.
"Bringing young people into these spaces. Kind of showing them that there's so many more options than you think and there's so much more time than you think," Dequasie said.
"Coming into these industries, you can see like oh people are making this happen and they maybe came from the same position I was in. So it can be easier than what it looks like to make things happen for yourself. Also seeing women in this. It's huge," Fitzgerald continued.
Some of Clayco's projects in St. Louis include Washington University School of Medicine / Barnes-Jewish Hospital Siteman Cancer Center and several St. Louis Community College Campus Modernizations.
To watch 5 On Your Side broadcasts or reports 24/7, 5 On Your Side is always streaming on 5+. Download for free on Roku, Amazon Fire TV or the Apple TV App Store.