Jessica Orlando may be an award-winning engineer with a degree from one of the top universities in the country, but people are still surprised when she tells them she’s in construction.
“People hear ‘construction’ and they see big burly men in their hard hats, eating their lunch and sitting on a beam in the middle of a building,” Orlando said. “It’s definitely a male-dominated industry. It can be hard to be a woman in this line of work.”
But that hasn’t stopped the 23-year-old Southold graduate from pursuing a career in the field of her dreams.
A lifelong North Fork resident and the daughter of the town’s highway superintendent, Orlando says she has always been fascinated with building things. So when, straight out of college, she was offered a position as an engineer with the largest general contractor in Washington D.C., she seized the opportunity.
“I honestly had no idea what to expect,” Orlando said. “It’s so different from anything that I’ve ever done. But I was just very excited.”
Last August, she made the move from her lifelong home on the North Fork to Washington D.C., three months after graduating from Notre Dame University in May 2015.
She has been working for the past nine months since at the construction site of a new museum in southwest D.C. called the Bible Museum. Her job as an office engineer includes managing sub-contractors on site, overseeing the daily work of the construction crews and brainstorming with other engineers to bring the museum’s architectural plans to life.
“This job lets me be part of something that’s so much bigger than myself,” Orlando said.
This project in particular excites her, Orlando says, because it involves the restoration of a building that is almost a century old. The home of the Bible Museum is a historic building that dates back to 1922, so the builders must maintain at least 45 percent of the building’s original structure due to D.C.’s historic preservation laws – a requirement that Orlando says is a unique and fascinating challenge.
“Buildings are getting built all the time in the city – apartment buildings, condos – they’re pretty much kind of cookie cutter,” she said. “This is something so different and so original, something that I’ll be able to come down here with my kids 20 years from now and say, ‘Mommy helped build that.’
“It’s just really neat to be part of something like that,” she added.
Being one of the only women on the construction site, however, brings its challenges. Not many women go into engineering, and even less go into construction – women represent only about one percent of construction workers on site.
“Obviously everyone wants to be treated equally, but it’s very hard,” she said. “Guys talk to women very differently than they talk to guys.”
Being such a young woman can make it even harder. Orlando is familiar with laborers on the site making inappropriate comments. “The field guys, sometimes they’ll be like, ‘Hey beautiful,’” she said. “I’ve learned that I need to make it very clear that I’m here to do my job and we have to work together.”
Gaining the respect of some of the people she works with has proved harder as a woman, she says. “It’s hard to be taken seriously sometimes,” she said. “But I love to just go out there and work and prove everybody wrong. I have no problem telling someone they’re not doing their job properly.”
Even in school, Orlando’s engineering classes were dominated by male students. She was one of two women on an eight person team who won a national concrete beam building contest – the only team in Notre Dame’s school history to bring home first place.
“I’ve learned to not curse that I’m a woman in construction,” she said. “I’m a woman. There’s no hiding it. It’s quite obvious. I just embrace it.”
And it’s also opened up other opportunities for her. Several months ago, a female security guard working in Orlando’s office – “the only other woman in the building, really,” – approached her and asked if Orlando wanted to be on the board of directors of a not-for-profit organization she was starting.
“She said, ‘God told me that I needed to ask you this,’” Orlando said. “So now I’m on the board of directors of a non-profit called Newborn Foundations.”
The organization collects baby supplies for struggling families, like diapers and baby wipes, that aren’t usually available at thrift stores and homeless shelters. “It’s aimed toward single parents, families who aren’t financially prepared for a new baby,” Orlando explained.
It’s not her first time volunteering her efforts for a good cause. Her employer, Clark Construction Group, offers monthly volunteer opportunities at local soup kitchens and fundraisers that Orlando regularly participates in.
“I so enjoy giving back,” Orlando said. “I do something once or twice a month.”
She credits her generous spirit to growing up in a town where everyone knows one another. “The people I graduated with, I’ve known since I was seven years old,” she said. “There’s so much trust and camaraderie in my hometown. I loved growing up like that.”
Orlando was the Mattituck Strawberry Queen of 2009. “Learning to be a role model at age 16, helping out with all the great things the Lion’s Club does, I think that cultivated me into who I am today.
“Giving back to the community is the basis of everything I’ve ever known.”
Editor’s note: Locals Making a Difference is an occasional series about Southold locals making a difference, either right here at home or in the world beyond. Got suggestions for future profiles? Write to the editor.
