TURNERS FALLS — Franklin County Technical School freshmen girls heard from women across the state on making their marks in male-dominated fields Friday morning.
“I was, once upon a time, sitting in those seats,” alumna and web developer Lydia Barrett-Miller told the students in the JaDuke Center for the Performing Arts auditorium at the “Tradeswomen of Tomorrow” forum.
After graduating from Franklin Tech’s programming and web development program in 2021, Barrett-Miller worked as a freelance web developer before starting her own company this year. Now, she is pursuing a master’s degree in cybersecurity at Bay Path University.
“Don’t be close-minded about all the opportunities that are given to you,” she said. “Use the toolset that you’re given throughout your experience here at Franklin County Tech School.”
The 13 speakers shared their paths to a range of trades, from repairing vehicles, pipefitting, welding and construction to studying and protecting trees, water treatment, sales, marketing and inspection, as well as the detours along the way.
While mowing lawns for a landscape and construction company, Nicole West’s gaze wandered to the machines at the nearby construction sites.
“I was like, ‘Wow, I love all these large machines, I want to get in them,” West told the freshmen in the audience.
So she stopped mowing and operated the machines herself.
“I was just out there doing my best as if no one was watching, and that really helps,” West said.
West now works as a district engineering inspector for the state, overseeing the licensing for operating the machinery. She encouraged the girls to advocate for themselves.
“Don’t be afraid to tell people what you need,” West said. “Just be yourself. It doesn’t matter if you’re super girly, if you’re a tomboy, what you look like — you can always do what you want to do.”
After the speakers shared notes of knowledge, they answered questions from students one-on-one at tables across the stage.
Speaker Lydia Barrett-Miller talks to a student about her career path. Credit: CONTRIBUTED/MIKE REARDON 
Cameron Jacques and Mady Vescovi talk to freshmen about the electrical program at Franklin County Technical School. Credit: CONTRIBUTED/MIKE REARDON 
Speakers answer questions from Franklin County Technical School students. Credit: CONTRIBUTED/MIKE REARDON
Nicole Miller, an advanced manufacturing instructor at the school, started the Tradeswomen of Tomorrow club, a local branch of Massachusetts Girls in Trade, with landscaping and horticulture instructor Amanda Mattison to foster “an environment for young ladies to express their interests in male-dominated fields or non-traditional fields.”
With the freshmen girls still exploring shops at the school before picking a program, Miller said the event expands their views of possible paths. When Miller started as a freshmen at Franklin Tech, she said she did not understand the scope of options for her future.
“When you’re in a shop, you look at the shop and you think that’s all there is to that field, so I think what I like best about this is they’re seeing that there’s so many branch-offs of opportunities that are available to [them],” Miller said.
“The club wants to help young girls be empowered and feel supported in trades that normally they wouldn’t be in,” said Jillian Deady, a junior in the Advanced Manufacturing Program and one of the eight members of Tradeswomen of Tomorrow. “We want to help them have a safe space to come and talk about any problems … and overall make non-traditional shops a better place for our school.”
While many of her classmates chatted next to her, junior Mady Vescovi recalled how when she was a freshman, she listened to the speakers’ every word.
“My eyes were on the screen the whole time watching these speakers talk, listening to what they were saying,” Vescovi said.
“I came into [Franklin County Technical School] not really knowing what I wanted, so I always had an open mind like a fresh sponge,” Vescovi’s friend and fellow junior Cameron Jacques said with a laugh. “I remember just wanting to take in all the information I could.”
Vescovi and Jacques joined the club after choosing the school’s electrical program.
Although Vescovi first considered welding, her first electrical class changed her mind.
“I got into the electrical shop for the first time … and it was like a switch got flipped,” Vescovi said.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2024 survey, only 12.7% of electrical and electronics engineers and 2.9% of electricians are women. Vescovi said the speakers introduced the freshmen to a circle of support for women in male-dominated fields.
“It’s really hard to find other females in the field to be able to confide in and talk to, and talk about your struggles in these fields,” Vescovi said. “There’s a lot of sexism and it’s hard to work through if you don’t have a support system behind you.”
Jacques agreed with Vescovi, adding that the event can also correct students’ perceptions of the typical paths for women to take.
“[We want] to make all these girls feel like it is possible. It’s not weird or out of the ordinary to want to go into plumbing or welding or all these different things,” Jacques said. “Anything they want to do is fully doable.”
