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When the Daily Journal of Commerce holds its Women of Vision awards event on Oct. 26, Emily Pilloton-Lam will be squarely in her comfort zone.

As the keynote speaker for the 2022 Women of Vision awards, Pilloton-Lam, founder and executive director of Girls Garage, enjoys being in rooms with other women doing incredible things in industries where women are not highly represented. For events like Women of Vision, she likes to acknowledge that the room is full of female leaders, whether they self-identify as leaders or not.

And she knows a thing or two about leadership.

Pilloton-Lam has presented her work and ideas on the Ted stage, 鈥淭he Colbert Report鈥� and in the documentary 鈥淚f you Build It.鈥�

鈥淚’m also just really excited to talk about what the future looks like,鈥� Pilloton-Lam said. 鈥淚 think acknowledging that we’re at a moment where the world is demanding different things of different industries, as female leaders, looking to the future (and) thinking of the next generation.鈥�

Pilloton-Lam has a background in architecture construction management. She founded the organization Project H Design in 2008. The name was changed to Girls Garage and became focused on girls and gender-expansive youth in 2013.

Girls Garage is a nonprofit design and construction school, located in Berkeley, California, for girls and gender-expansive youth ages 9-18. It is the first design and building workshop for female, nonbinary and gender-expansive youth in the United States, according to the nonprofit’s website. The program has carpentry, welding, architecture, engineering and more.

鈥淎s a program right now, we enroll about 300 students per year starting at age 9 and all the way up through their high school graduation,鈥� Pilloton-Lam said. 鈥淭hey come to us after school and/or in the summer and on the weekends.鈥�

Pilloton-Lam said there are different pathways students can take in the program and they are not limited to just one area. Students can come in at any level. The core of Girls Garage is to focus efforts on physical built projects in service of the community.

鈥淲e teach them through projects that are pro bono projects for other nonprofits,鈥� Pilloton-Lam said. 鈥淲e just built a public bus stop. We’ve built greenhouses and chicken coups and tiny houses.鈥�

Students are in the program for years, some even up until high school graduation.

鈥淲e have two different age categories,鈥� Pilloton-Lam said of how girls can enroll in the program. 鈥淥ur high school program from ninth-12th graders, they enroll by application.鈥�

Applications are not merit-based. The teen program is free. Schools that do not have art or vocational programs are given preference.

鈥淲e also give preference to students of color,鈥� Pilloton-Lam said. 鈥淲e give preference to students who just demonstrate a great need for something, a space where they can be supported.鈥�

For the younger kids ages nine up to eighth grade, most of the programs are paid on a sliding scale. Half of the younger students attend the program with a full or partial scholarship.

To date, participants have built 184 projects, ranging from furniture for a domestic abuse shelter, a greenhouse for a community garden, and a fruit stand for an organization serving refugee families.

The focus of Girls Garage is on the process of how the built environment gets made. Through the process of building something, the students gain a better understanding and appreciation for building something that is beautiful and lasts.

鈥淢any of our students come quick to understand most architecture firms, most trades organizations, most engineering firms are male dominated,鈥� Pilloton-Lam said. 鈥淭here’s sort of a demographic blind spot when there aren’t enough women in the room.鈥�

Pilloton-Lam said in her own experience, there is a duality that women experience in the industry. On one hand, women feel the pressure, and feel what it is like being a minority in an industry not built for women.

On the other hand, Pilloton-Lam has known since she was young that there was not anything else she wanted to do. She finds joy and challenge for the work she does. She has presented her work on the Ted Stage and has been featured on 鈥淭he Today Show,鈥� Forbes, CNN and more.

The 2022 Women of Vision Awards will be held Oct. 26 at The Sentinel Hotel in Portland. For more information on the event, visit djcoregon.com/women-of-vision.