Marissa Goodsky was living not even paycheck to paycheck, but night to night on the tips she earned waiting tables. Dawn Benner, the Tribal Employment Officer at the time for Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, knew Goodsky had a strong work ethic since high school, helping out wherever she could. Benner told Goodsky about the Cement Masons MnDOT Tribal Training program and said if Goodsky made it through the 12 weeks, she could have a career as a cement mason. Goodsky was sold on the pay and having an awesome career. Then Benner told her about the benefits, and Goodsky was hooked. Without knowing really anything more than this, she dove in wholeheartedly. “I ran with it ever since.”

After classroom training and a lot of hands-on training, Goodsky was confident going out on the job. She graduated on a Friday, took a drug test for her new job on Monday, and was working onsite on Tuesday. Her foreperson and journeypersons quizzed her all day with typical concrete questions, and they watched her like a hawk. She impressed them right off the bat.

On her first job, Goodsky made relationships that continue today. She still works with the mentors she had then. “The relationships I’ve built with my mentors and the union have been life changing,” she said.

“Without this program, who knows, I could still be waitressing and living from one night’s tips to the next without having the lessons and opportunities that I’ve had.”

Goodsky has owned her own home since she was a third-year apprentice, has health care, a future in cement masonry, and a future after that, thanks to her pension.

But more meaningful to her than all that, Marissa Goodsky makes a positive difference every day. She is proud of all her projects and wherever she goes, will point out to family and friends the jobs she’s worked on. One of her biggest projects was at the State Capitol, where she did the concrete for the pavilion and in the Capitol basement.

“But in my career the biggest thing I’m proud of is that I got my little sister in. She was in the same boat as I was at the time, working here and there, and not really finding a way to make ends meet, and now she’s a journey worker.”

Seven years after the Cement Masons MnDOT Tribal Training program, Goodsky has accomplished a lot. Women Building Success, a Minnesota organization that promotes the success of women in the construction trades, awarded Goodsky with this year's Journey Worker of the Year. And she teaches the same training course for MnDOT that she started with.

“I’m very proud of that. I come from a really small reservation up north so to come down here and make the impact that I’m making on those younger than me—it’s huge. We’re putting out some great apprentices and changing their lives like my life was changed.”

“It means that I’m on the right path, that I’m helping out our trade, and trying to create a good pathway for other people like me, to prove that we can do it. This is a good road to be on.”

Photo credit: Marissa Goodsky, cement finisher, on the job at the Minnesota State Capitol. Photo provided by Marissa Goodsky.