Pictured is the N.E.W. workshop which took place in Warsaw in 2022. Photo provided by Warsaw Community Schools.

Press Release

WARSAW — On Thursday, Oct. 12, 200 high school sophomore girls from four area high schools — Lakeland Christian Academy, Tippecanoe Valley, Triton, and Warsaw — will attend the Fall 2023 N.E.W. Workshop.

N.E.W. stands for exploring Nontraditional Employment for Women. This workshop will be an all-day conference and will be held at the Warsaw Community High School Tiger Recreation and Activity Center.

The objective of this workshop is to introduce the female student population to nontraditional career opportunities, to increase female enrollment in nontraditional career & technical educational course offerings, and to increase female awareness of innovative employment opportunities that should lead to helping local businesses achieve their federal employment goals in the area of nontraditional placement.

In the morning session, there will be a keynote speaker. The speaker this year is Vanessa Silvestro, who began her welding career after being not only the first woman to graduate from the Elkhart Area Career Center’s welding program, but doing so with a newborn. After graduation, she continued to break barriers as the only single mother and only woman not sponsored by a branch of the military to be certified as an underwater welder and inspector by the renowned Diver’s Academy in Camden, N.J.

Her career has spanned working on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, laying fiber in the Pascagoula River, and inspecting bridges in Bridgeport, Tex., as part of the Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. For the past 12 years, Silvestro has been heavily involved in the manufacturing industry (including marine and automotive) and the education and certification of the future generations of welders as an AWS certified welding educator/welding inspector.

Following the keynote address, students will be introduced to nontraditional occupations via round table discussions. Each student will have the opportunity to choose five different occupations and meet with the presenter to find out more information on and hear experiences about the career. Information presented will include education and training needed for the career, a typical workday, work environment, wage information, employment forecast, and advantages for women in their particular occupation.

Some of the careers and industries that will be represented are: agriculture, attorney, automotive, civil engineering, corporate communication, entrepreneur, firefighter, insurance, information technology, landscape management, law enforcement, meteorology, organ donation, research science, transportation, and veterinarian.

Additionally in the afternoon, many of the presenters will have “try it” sessions so students can have hands-on experiences. Some examples are architecture, automotive services, CNC operator, computers, construction, land surveying, marketing, optometry, shareable art, and writing. Representatives from Fronius will be on-site in the afternoon with portable welders to provide all students the opportunity to try MIG welding. Supplemental materials and handouts will be provided to all attendees.

This is an exciting opportunity for young women from area high schools to see the possibilities for their future with a career that each may not have thought about or known was available to them. The purpose of the workshop is to expand the career possibilities for young women to consider and possibly find one that is of interest.