The first day, Lucia Coronado’s 11-year-old daughter Aurora came home thrilled to have put her hands on all kinds of robust tools.

“She was talking about how she used a nail gun,” Coronado said.

Now Coronado had come to see for herself what had gone down at LINC’s two-day summer camp for girls at MCC-Penn Valley’s Advanced Technical Skills Institute on Troost Avenue. And here was Aurora, arriving for the camp’s closing celebration with her arms full of metal flower sculptures that she had welded together.

Not only had she fired away in a heavy-masked welding suit, she told her mother, but she had also “learned how to use electronic things to turn on a light and buzzing sound.”

And carpentry. Construction. And HVAC tin molding.

“I’m really grateful,” Coronado said, standing alongside Aurora. “Because, you know, we’re girls and we need to learn different things. So this was amazing for that.”

Aurora was one of a dozen middle school girls from LINC programs who joined the first cohort in a collaboration with the Metropolitan Community Colleges to introduce girls to the opportunities in skilled trades.

MCC’s Advanced Technical Skills Institute (ATSI) had already started similar camps with groups from Girl Scouts, and LINC Commissioner Dr. Tammy Robinson — who also happens to be the president of MCC-Penn Valley — saw a great opportunity for girls in LINC.

After LINC staff toured ATSI last fall, LINC worked with the college to make it happen.

“We want these young girls to know that these are career options for them as well,” said Lisa Bray, Dean of Career and Technical Education at MCC-Penn Valley. “And oftentimes they’ll achieve something they didn’t even think they could do.”

Many of the girls were nervous when they went with ATSI instructors into the institute’s vast and busy workshops, said LINC Caring Communities Supervisor Melanie Scott, but they soon were immersed in the work.

“You could tell they were scared and they weren’t sure what to do,” Scott said. “But (the camp) gave them a safe environment to try something new.”

They were in there, handling power tools, she said. “They got to weld. They got to build things. They worked with circuitry. They were building boxes out of sheet metal.”

MCC renovated the 100,000-square-foot building at 2944 Troost Ave. in 2022 to bring its programming in building maintenance and construction, computer-integrated machining and manufacturing, HVAC, industrial technology and welding to the heart of the city.

Since moving the programs from its previous site north of the Missouri River, its enrollment has boomed, especially among minority students.

And the reactions from LINC’s campers show there can certainly be more interest from girls.

“It was interesting. I liked the experience,” said Le’Onia, 13, of Hickman Mills Middle School.

“Scary, but fun,” said Emma, 13, of Delta Woods Middle School.

“I can do hands-on things and actually have some action,” said Brooke, 13, also of Hickman Mills Middle School.

“I like this camp,” said 13-year-old Myracle of Alvin Brooks Middle School, “because we get to try new stuff that most women and girls don’t get to try.”

And Sara, 13, of Alvin Brooks Middle School, said she thinks she may attend ATSI in the future, “because I want to learn more about welding.”

LINC and MCC-Penn Valley want to continue and even expand the partnership with more camps in the future, Bray and Scott said. Meetings are already under way.

Scott wants to see more girls “boldly go in,” she said, “and leave with confidence.”