Page 16 - Q4_2022 Rosendin Corporate Newsletter
P. 16
Landing on Constr
uction
Landing on Construction
Reflecting on my journey across the globe
By Samantha Sprole, Electrical Apprentice
I DO NOT COME FROM A LINEAGE OF TRADESMEN it’s too late. With some luck, my story of stumbling
AND WOMEN, NOR DID I EVER THINK AS A YOUNG through life and onto a construction site will help more
young women envision themselves in full command
PERSON I WOULD FIND A HOME IN of their future, even in a male-dominated industry.
THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY. After almost eight years in higher education, I have
become a firm believer in the earn-while-you-learn
Instead, I wandered through a thousand philosophy of the building trades. Today, I am a proud
interests, a hundred places, through multiple first-year apprentice electrician, studying at the Nashville
schools and several career paths before arriving Electrical Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee
at the International Brotherhood of Electrical (NEJATC) while at the same time working 60-hour weeks
Workers (IBEW) Local 429 in Nashville. with Rosendin, one of the largest employee-owned
electrical contractors in the country. Week after week,
Here, with my brothers and sisters in the trade, I have hundreds of my fellow workers and I build the largest data
discovered how a good livelihood can intersect with center in Tennessee, while two nights a week I sit in class
one’s innermost values, a duty to one’s community, and learn the theory behind my craft. I’m happy to share
and the siren call to build a better future before the story of how I got here.
16 | THE FEEDER
