Tatyana Klahn heard about WRTP | BIG STEP from her brother, who came to us for career services, but she blazed a path all her own as a 2024 Madison Summer Trades Academy and Entry-Level Construction Skills graduate.
Prior to starting the Summer Trades Academy, Tatyana had no experience with the trades.
“I had never done anything with a hand tool,” she says. “[WRTP | BIG STEP staff] said, ‘Try this training and get some experience.’”
The class toured all the Madison-area union halls in the first weeks of the academy. During these tours, Tatyana enjoyed learning about each trade, talking with the skilled union tradespeople already working in the industry, and trying a hands-on activity that influenced the course of her life.
“I had no clue what trade I wanted to go into during the union tours,” Tatyana says. “At Local 599, we were making these little concrete slabs. They said this isn’t what we are usually doing, but I had fun doing it and decided to go into cement masonry.”
Parisi Construction ended up hiring Tatyana before she graduated from the Summer Trades Academy, and she’s now a cement mason apprentice working through her schooling with the Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons Local 599. She advises anyone to try out our training before writing off a career in the trades.
“I was hesitant on doing it because I was one of the only girls,” Tatyana says, “but it helped me find a career. I would have never set foot in any of these unions without WRTP | BIG STEP.”