Markeshia Ricks photo
Cortes was one of 37 women receiving certificates Thursday.
Leticia Cortes often saw men with hard hats heading off to construction sites and longed to don a hard hat of her own, but she never thought she’d ever get that chance. That was until she saw a flyer about construction training for women.
“I said, ‘Yes, this is for me,” she said. “‘Today is my day.’”
Cortes (pictured above) was one of 87 women accepted into the first women-only class of the city’s Construction Workforce Initiative 2 Program at its training school on Dixwell Avenue. On an overcast Thursday morning, she was one of the 37 who, decked not hard hats and steel-toe boots, but fashionably attired in black with fuschia-hued sashes, graduated from the program certified in carpentry or painting and taping.
Cortes participated in the painting and taping division of the program and it was a hard earned education. Students had to arrive at each class by 6:30 a.m. Class started promptly at 6:45 a.m. If you were late, you were out.
“Our instructors were very nice, but very serious,” Cortes said. “They didn’t play. You had to be at class every day and stay the whole day.”
Cortes would finish her training class at 2 p.m. and have to be at her job at Dunkin Donuts by 3 p.m. She often worked until 10 p.m.
In spite her grueling schedule, her hard work paid off. On graduation day she received the most awards, and was recognized for her volunteer service, being most mechanically inclined, most improved, overall excellence and perfect attendance.
When Cortes received her certificate of completion, her 11-year-old son Rony (pictured above) was in the audience. He could not have been prouder.
“I’m very proud of my mom because she works hard each day,” he said. “I see her going off to work with a smile every day. I feel happy for her because she was able to accomplish her goals.”
Cortes wasn’t the only woman who traced her arrival at graduation to seeing a flyer about the program.
Rhonda Knox (pictured), a stay-at-home mother of three, said she saw the same flyer that Cortes saw at one of her children’s schools and decided to apply. She said she has always been someone “who liked to get her hands dirty,” and she felt like she had a knack for fixing things.
“Men are always talking about what women can’t do and say ‘It’s a man’s world,’” she said. “I thought, ‘No way. I can do this.’”
A student of the painting and taping division Knox said she loved every minute of the training particularly the process of taking a “virgin” wall and turning it into a perfect surface for beautiful paint. Knox said she expects working at male dominated construction site could be tough, but the former security guard said she’s got pretty thick skin and thinks she can handle it.
Cherie Gordino, a graduate of the carpentry division, said she saw the same flyer that reeled Knox and Cortes into the program. The mother of four said she wasn’t doing anything and she saw the program as an opportunity to have a well paying career. Some of the jobs that she will now be eligible for start at $17 an hour.
“Being here at 6:30 every morning was hard,” she said. “The exercising was hard, but I got used to it and now I wake up at the same time every day. Now I’m looking forward to getting a job.”
CWI2 Carpentry Division Graduates: Adashia Bailey; Sapphire Birdine; Terri Davis; Ivory Dent; Whitney Edwards; Tanisha Figueroa; Jonique Foreman; Tiffany Gilmore; Cherie Gordino; Wilneaka Harris; Stevona Harvey; Julia Iassogna; Teolinda Matos; Yolanda Peterson; Mary Quesnel; Evangeline Rivera; Thalia Rivera; Sounjay Walker-Bennett; and Cherise White.
Painting and Taping Division Graduates: Dianna Alexander; Victoria Batts; Daunne Blake; Renita Brewer; Rena Brown; Felicia Charles; Leticia Cortes; Lauri DeMichele; Ashley Floyd; Monica Gibbs; Brittany Jackson; Monique Jones; Rhonda Knox; Janeil Robinson; Dana Scott; Alisa Simon; Nancy Smith; and Colisha Waller.