HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Young women ages 12 to 15 from the organization Girls, Inc. joined craftsmen at North Alabama Home Building Academy for a two-week camp, where they’re learning how to build everything from birdhouses to benches all with their own two hands.

The academy decided to host the free camp to educate girls on opportunities within the construction industry by not only teaching them how to build, but also introducing them to local female business owners and home builders.

“Women are so underrepresented in the construction industry because its always been seen as something only a man can do. Here at NAHA, North Alabama home building academy, 10 percent of our graduates are female, so we show women can do this, we just want to get them excited and interested,” NAHA Career Coach and Recruiter Jill Oxley said.

“Probably next summer or sometime this summer in July I might come back here and learn new things,” Girls, Inc. student Riyomari Fletcher said.

At the end of the camp, each girl gets to take home the birdhouses they made, along with their hard hat and a tool kit so they can continue to build long after they leave the campus.