ince 2013, over 1,000 students have walked through our doors, eager to build, create art that matters, and make a lasting impact on their community. Our first graduating class in 2020 was a small cohort of seventeen students and every year this number continues to grow. In this ongoing series, we’ll be sharing stories of our amazing alumni and how your donations fuel our fearless builders creating new worlds and possibilities as leaders!
Meet Alya! 🛠️🔥
At nineteen-years-old, alumna Alya Adil is already an accomplished tradeswoman. In addition to taking engineering and automotive technology classes at local colleges, she’s also received a welding certificate from Chabot College. Her dream is to work on high-powered engines, like NASA rockets and F1 cars.
Alya knows that her career path is a bit unconventional. According to the US Department of Labor, women make up only 2.2% of automotive service technicians and mechanics, and 5% of welders.
But Alya has discovered that being a woman in the trades has connected her to a deep and lasting sisterhood with other female and gender-expansive tradespeople.
Alya first encountered this connectedness when she enrolled in the Young Women’s Design + Building Institute at Girls Garage in 2021. “Every instructor was so welcoming and approachable,” she says, “and I felt that sisterhood with my cohort. I felt like I could trust everyone, regardless of our different backgrounds.” That summer, Alya helped build library furniture and design garden murals for a transitional housing shelter. When she returned to Girls Garage the next year, she helped build the toolbox float for the San Francisco Pride Parade.
Left: Guided by instructor Allison, Alya cuts a sheet of plywood with laser focus using the track saw. Right: Alya poses with the mixed media poster she designed as part of our YWDBI summer program.
Because Girls Garage was a safe space for Alya to learn and explore, it fueled her curiosity to pursue trades in the real world. When Alya started taking college-level trades classes, she noticed that the women in her classes would immediately band together and help each other understand the material, just like at Girls Garage. “There’s no judgment, which makes a very supportive learning environment,” she says. “Unlike the male students, we’re not afraid to ask the professor questions, and then we walk away with a better understanding of the problem.”
The sisterhood Alya describes is the foundation of Girls Garage’s work. From high school programs to our alumni network, we’ve created an environment that fosters curiosity in aspiring builders, architects, and artists as they establish a community that encourages growth, honesty, and mutual respect.
Bonus: You can watch and listen to Alya and other Girls Garage alumna describe the impacts of this program on their lives and their communities!