Carlyn McClelland, 35, of Elkhart, a former probation officer, holds a Michigan State University bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.
Victoria Knight, 21, of Niles, graduated from Brandywine High School in 2013, then attended University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for nursing.
Ileona Geroux, 18, a 2016 Sturgis High School graduate, imagined taking Glen Oaks Community College general courses.
Heaven Burfield, 18, a 2016 Covert High School graduate, wanted to be a lawyer growing up.
The four met in September working side by side during year two of SMC building a “green,” 504-square-foot small house.
Knight exited nursing after working in an outpatient surgery center 2 1/2 years.
The only child and first in her family to attend college enrolled at SMC to finish a two-year Associate of Arts degree while rethinking her options.
“I came to school one day and saw the small house being built,” Knight said. “I thought, ‘What the heck is that?’ I’ve worked on houses with my dad since I was a kid. He’s a truck driver obsessed with tiny houses and got me hooked. I want to do that as a sideline” along with flipping houses after finishing Ferris State University’s construction management program.
Her boyfriend studying nursing is renovating his house.
“When we work together, it’s the most fun I’ve ever had. I ride motorcycles and love working on cars,” Knight said.
Construction trades instructor Larry Wilson never had more than one woman in his program until this fall. Almost a third are female — six of 20.
“I almost fell over,” Wilson said. “Construction is coming back in a big way,” as evidenced by media reports companies fret more over finding skilled workers than finding work.
The University of Notre Dame, for example, is amidst a building boom, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in new campus construction. Knight’s Barton Malow internship places her in that story because “they’re doing the stadium at Notre Dame.”
“After I had my boys (Sam, 8, and Eli, 6), I knew I wanted to do more,” McClelland said. “I like going to bed tired. I have a 100-year-old house I want to know how to fix. When I suggested to my husband (Paul, who teaches high school chemistry) coming here to take classes, he said, ‘That’s not a dumb idea.’
“I graduated pretty high in my (1998) high school class (in Clio, north of Flint). I didn’t consider this. People would have been like, ‘Why do you want to go to trade school when you’ve got the brains for something else?’ I’ll tell you what, stuff we’re learning is a whole different language. You can’t be stupid and do this. If I had college to do over again, I would do this at community college for two years,” avoiding $20,000 student debt.
“I would go on to Ferris, but can’t be on-campus in Big Rapids with kids at Elkhart Christian,” said McClelland, daughter of Genesee County’s first female deputy sheriff.
“My boys think I’m the coolest mom ever in construction school. Every day I did anything with my criminal justice degree felt like work. I lost 150 pounds over the last four years and embraced a different lifestyle. I have too much energy to sit behind a desk. As a female, it’s empowering to do traditional man things and see progress at the end of the day that I made a difference.”
“She’s inspirational,” Knight said. “This career opens up so much. Right now, I’m working on my real estate license.”
McClelland loves to bake, so makes cookies on Thursdays to bridge the generation gap with her male peers.
“They’re not sure how to take me. I watch more football than my husband. They’re so quiet, I think I scare them,” she said, though one gallantly returned her ladder to the Jan and A.C. Kairis Building. “Men are insecure appearing they don’t know what they’re doing or asking for help. It takes a strong guy to be married to me. My husband calms me down and is very good at talking me off my ledge.”
“Really good projects can be produced with men and women working together because we’re different,” Knight said.
Geroux, who has six siblings, sidestepped pre-calculus with construction in her career and technical education program, figuring “I like to build things with Legos, so I would gain future knowledge for fixing stuff. I was one of seven girls from Sturgis and Centreville. I got the Breaking Traditions Award, Outstanding Senior of the Year and the Golden Hammer. We built a house for Habitat for Humanity. My CTE teacher said SMC has a great construction program, so I switched everything and came here because it felt like a better option.”
Burfield studied engineering and architecture at Van Buren Technology Center in Lawrence.
“I liked architecture better — especially home-building, making blueprints on computers,” Burfield said. “I really got into it and don’t want to be a lawyer anymore.”