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Career Challenge Day at Green Mountain Tech

by Jillian Scannell

A middle school student wires an electrical box at Career Challenge Day

 

In 2026 Vermont Works for Women returned to Hyde Park for the fourth year hosting Career Challenge Day with Green Mountain Tech.

Career Challenge Day is a free, day-long career exploration event that provides girls and gender-expansive youth in grades 6-8 with the opportunity to try hands-on activities at Green Mountain Tech in a supportive environment.  

Career Challenge Day 2026

This year 114 students from 10 schools across the Lamoille County participated in empowering, hands-on activities in different non-traditional programs at the tech center.  Visiting students had the chance to learn about Green Mountain Tech’s programs by meeting instructors and current students, getting their hands on special tools, and experiencing a taste of common projects in each of the different fields:  

  • Allied Health – practiced CPR, took blood pressure and pulse, learned how to stop the bleed, and talked about mental health
  • Automotive Technology – changed a tire and replaced brake pads
  • Business Administration – created business cards
  • Computer Networking – used virtual reality goggles, played a video game, and operated drones on an obstacle course
  • Construction Technology – used hand and power tools to build wooden tool boxes
  • Creative Media Art & Design – used digital cameras to take photos in the studio space and edit them using design software 
  • Culinary Arts – made pancakes
  • Electrical Tech – wired an outlet and light
  • Engineering – wired a circuit
  • Forestry & Land Management – sat in a climbing harness, started a chainsaw, learned to tap a tree, and practiced knot tying
  • Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning – brazed copper pipes   
  • Pre-Technology – explored and built simple machines
  • Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems – inoculated logs with mushrooms, used a microscope, and interacted with goats and chickens
A middle school student solders copper wire at Career Challenge Day A middle school girl looks through a microscope at Career Challenge Day

 

 

 

 

 

Why is Career Challenge Day Important?  

Research and our experience prove that early exposure to STEM and trades career fields inspires more girls and gender-expansive students to enroll in their tech center and/or pursue fields where their gender is often underrepresented. It is clear from the student feedback that participants felt safe, inspired, and like they explored something they might have not thought about before Career Challenge Day. 

Middle school students brush a goat at Career Challenge Day A middle school student uses a drill to build a wooden toolbox at Career Challenge Day

 

 

 

 

 

Student Feedback 

When asked about their day, students shared:

  • “I liked everything, I just wouldn’t have known I liked it before the tech center “
  • “I am capable of more than I thought. .”
  • “It was amazing!”
  • “I can do a lot of things that I thought were hard.”
  • “I changed a tire and I can now imagine myself doing it again.”

To learn more about Career Challenge Day at Green Mountain Tech or be notified of the event next year, please contact Ada Case at acase@vtworksforwomen.org