As a junior in high school, Alejandra Rios came across a flyer for the inaugural Heavy Metal Summer Experience.
But it wasn’t an opportunity to follow around a touring Metallica or Iron Maiden. Instead, Rios attended a summer camp in the Seattle area intended to introduce kids her age to the construction trades.
Rios, 21, had previously worked with metal, taking jewelry classes throughout high school and learning the basics of soldering and metalworking.
“It got me thinking I would want to do this on a bigger scale, I really enjoyed it,” Rios told Construction Dive.
Today, she does marine maintenance for the Port of Seattle as an apprentice, more than halfway to journeyman status. Without the Heavy Metal Summer Experience, a nonprofit formed by Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association members, she may have attended a technical college or pursued accounting, she said.
Rios attended the HMSE in 2021, when it was focused primarily on HVAC and metalworking. Then, it had just two camps — one in Seattle and one in the San Francisco Bay Area — for 28 students total. In 2024, 36 camps across the U.S. and Canada reached 500 kids, according to Angie Simon, HMSE founder. In 2025, that number will keep growing.
Heavy metal origins
Simon, who was national president of SMACNA in 2020, said the summer camp came about when she and her peers wanted to find ways to reach teens who wouldn’t otherwise learn about the trades as a career path.
She coordinated with HVAC services firm Hermanson Co. in Seattle and Western Allied Mechanical in Union City, California, to formulate the ideas for an educational program.
“We started developing. What are we going to need to run a summer camp? What are we going to need to attract the kids? What are we going to need to teach them? And how long should it be?” Simon told Construction Dive.
The result was a 36-hour program hosted in company shops. A few days a week for six weeks, high school students or recent graduates visited the shops to get hands-on experiences as they learned about the trades, such as HVAC and metalworking, as well as the construction industry at large as a career option.
But unlike other programs, the HMSE isn’t a nationwide organization running dozens of camps. Instead, Simon said her team worked to create what she calls “the easy button.” Rather than organize each of the camps, HMSE developed the playbook for running its camp or one like it, so interested partners can duplicate it.
And those guidelines provide flexibility, Simon said. Some are hosted in union training centers rather than contractors’ shops. Some have focused on plumbing, pipelaying or electrical work. And not everyone spreads out the 30-hour recommended minimum over several weeks.
For example, Stacy Zerr, executive director of the Mechanical Contractors Association of Kansas City, said her camp runs from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.
“Camp is exhausting!” Zerr told Construction Dive in an email. “It’s packed with hands-on activities. … Ultimately, they should feel a satisfaction in seeing how they can use their hands and minds to produce something that can help build our worlds.”
Impact for campers and organizers
Reuben Umanskiy, 18, didn’t want to attend HMSE when his robotics teacher recommended it. However, his teacher urged him further, saying it would be better than “wasting” his summer with video games and offering extra credit. He enjoyed it enough to attend the following summer, even without another extra credit offer.
“You straight up get to weld, they give you all the protective gear,” said Umanskiy, now a material handler for Hermanson in Seattle.
“It’s pretty epic. I started, my first day was Sept. 4, right out of high school. I get to work in construction,” Umanskiy said. His passion for it wouldn’t have existed without HMSE.
Both Rios and Umanskiy mentioned they had not previously viewed construction as a career since it’s not something they got exposure to directly. They were mostly used to seeing jobsites on the side of the road or behind fencing.
Zerr said that’s the kind of impact she and other camp directors are looking for, as most high schoolers don’t have the same hands-on experience with any kind of trade, even at an entry level such as a wood shop class.
“It’s hard to know if you have a gift or passion for something when you’ve never had exposure or a chance to try it,” Zerr said. “HMSE is about giving kids a chance to try something new.”
Simon encouraged more contractors to take action, whether by hosting a HMSE or finding some other method to curb the ongoing skilled labor crisis.
“I think it's time for us to stop talking about it and start doing something about it,” Simon said.
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