September 3, 2014
$îort lattò (Obstruer
Page 5
Diversity in Construction
Woman finds passion in career switch
This self described “military brat” federal building in downtown Port
really thought that her employment land.
in the administration field would be
“I never thought about working
the path she would continue travel- in the construction field, but I’m
ling, until one assignment changed sure glad that the opportunity pre
everything.
sented itself,” she says.
Hailing from South Carolina origi
Mentored by “one of the best”
nally, Marlena Sledge graduated
Grant High School in Portland in
1995, and headed for college on a
golf scholarship, attending Cal State
Los Angeles. She would later trans
fer to Portland State University.
Her career path took a turn while
on a temporary assignment with
Brooks Staffing Agency. Sledge
would take on a construction project
for the Edith Green Wendell Wyatt
contractors, invoices from vendors,
and processing weekly payroll for
the craft employees that are out
working in the field along with other
tasks.
Currently, Sledge is a part of a
Howard S. Wright project in Camas
working on a 5-story building that is
being constructed from the ground
up.
“I love being on site to see the
day to day happenings, wearing my
hardhat, included,” she says.
sen io r p ro jec t a cc o u n ta n ts at
Howard S. Wright construction,
Sledge was able to pick up the skills
and training to do the job herself; it
proved itself true as she was soon
hired as a Project Accountant at the
company.
Now, she is responsible for pro
cessing pay applications for sub- M arlena Sledge
A nalese Steverson-Pugh
Local
Student
Top Black
Scholar
T he N atio n al A ch iev em en t
Scholarship Program was estab
lished 50 years ago to provide schol
arships and recognition to scholas-
tically-exceptional black high school
students.
Central Catholic senior Analese
Steverson-Pugh, who graduated
fromTrinity Lutheran School in 2010,
was one of Oregon’s three 2014
black scholar winners and will be
attending Stanford University this
fall.
T he o th er stu d en ts earn in g
$2,500 scholarships were Solan Is-
rael-M ergerssa of Sheldon High
School and Alejandra Padin-Dujon
of Lincoln High.-
Students are picked for having
high PSAT and SAT scores and
consistently high academic perfor
mance and being endorsed by their
school.
Steverson-Pugh, who played
Trinity sports and was a top student
at the northeast Portland school, is
now a pole vaulter with plans to
study neuroscience.
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