Gladys Juarez

Gladys Juarez is a pioneer for women in the construction industry. A Senior Marketing Coordinator at Swinerton, she is leading the way for women of color to pursue a career in the male-dominated industry of construction. Having graduated from the University of Denver with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and Spanish, she has leveraged the power of networking to not only navigate her own career but be a resource for others also looking to break through barriers to find success. 

Read more about HERstory

Tell us about yourself, where are you from, where you went to college, and what do you do for work? 

I grew up in Denver, my home schools were supposed to be DPS schools, but we transferred districts when I was in elementary school, and I ended up going to JeffCO Schools. I commuted the whole time and was supposed to go to Denver North High School, which was like 5 min away from me, but I went to Wheat Ridge High School, which was like a good 20-30 min drive.

From there I went to  the University of Denver specifically in the Daniel's College of Business.

I got my Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration in Marketing and Spanish and I currently work as a Senior Marketing Coordinator for Swinerton, a large commercial general contractor. We do a lot of work across different markets, from aerospace clients, technology clients, healthcare, and tenant office improvements. We also do aviation work at the airport. There's higher education and  K-12 as well as multi-family housing and hospitality. Those big high-rise towers are kind of like our bread and butter.

I do a little bit of traditional marketing right and work with the corporate marketing team that supersedes us. We basically do advertising and event planning and a lot of writing for our leadership teams for internal and external communications. My priority is proposal work. What that means is, I do a lot of work with our project executive, project manager and superintendent.

Together we put a proposal together for a client to win the work that then the guys actually go build. I could be working anywhere from one to four proposals at a time. It goes from the proposal stage to an interview stage if we get shortlisted. I do a lot of the preparation and presentation with our teams and then they go in there, and get awarded the work. From there it leaves my hands and goes into their life cycle of doing it. Once they actually build the job, I might go out for photography. I might go out for any events that they have, like when they go out and do the groundbreaking or when they complete everything.

. 

Tell us about working in a male dominated industry as a Latina woman

So it's interesting on a professional level, you're right. Statistically speaking, nationally there's about 11% women in the construction industry, and that includes admin people like myself, office, marketing, project managers, and superintendents.It also includes craft which accounts for laborers doing this carpentry work, concrete things like that. So it is definitely, very much still a male dominated industry. 

There have been some strides made though. We just had our women in construction week in March. It's usually like that first week of March, March 5th-12th and it's basically a huge awareness campaign for everyone in the industry. Architecture, engineering, and construction.

All these women, all these clients, get together and do a lot of like speaker events so that can be very empowering. But at the same time it does, I think it puts a lot of spotlight on the lack of women in these positions so it can be challenging. I think it can be intimidating a little bit at the beginning but I do see it changing. I think that's like the positive spin, I would say on the professional level. I do think it's changing personally. It's a little bit more challenging, because when you look at construction when you first think of construction from the outside looking in, you see a lot of Latino people that are out there working right most of our jobs.  Like my dad, other family members are the ones that are actually out there. 

I find it very empowering to be at the table and talk to our crafts guys when I get the chance, and they're very supportive.It’s challenging but beautiful at the same time because it's kind of like, how can we help you? And how can we better represent you? And there's definitely a lot of work to go. But I do think we need more representation.Like if I wanted to go the operation side, which I kind of can a little bit if I wanted to. They need superintendents that speak spanish. That's how you can better communicate with your craftsmen. There's a better line of communication. It actually helps even for safety reasons being able to tell the guys on site how to do things properly. You know anything like that. It just helps facilitate communication. So I do think we need more diverse representation, more Latinos, more people of color in general. So it's getting there, but it's still a challenge. 

How did you find your path to your chosen field and your job?

The power of networking moves mountains. That's gonna be my theme here. I actually had a sorority sister’s husband, who also went to DU, help me when I was a senior in college. He had already graduated and was working as a project engineer at Saunders construction. It just so happened that Saunders was re-branding, and they needed a marketing intern. It's actually very rare that you get a big company doing a full re-brand, and it's even more rare to have marketing internships within this industry. So I happened to be hanging out with them and he was like, what are you doing when you graduate? I had no idea at this point and he asked me to give him my resume. He gave me his card and said he would connect me with people, since they are looking for an intern. That's basically how it started. I ended up going through an entire interview process , 3 rounds of interviews, some kind of test of sorts where they ask you to submit work. Which I've seen become more and more common these days, and I got the internship. I actually got it after I graduated, which is a little non-traditional. I had graduated and interned for the summer, so I had a great opportunity and it was just a great time. The team was fabulous, the projects were super cool. I liked going out to job sites all the time. I liked talking to the guys out there, and I learned a lot of things that can be taught  that you didn't learn in school, like you don't understand what marketing needs in these niche markets. That's kind of how it started.

I got very lucky I had a marketing manager quit, so they were like we need more people until we replace her. We want to offer you an extension, and I was like great. I got an extension. Later the marketing manager stepped away for maternity leave, and they're like, would you like another extension? I ended up staying there for like a year. I realized I really liked it. It's a niche market. It's a great opportunity. I stayed with it, and ended up finding more of a permanent role in a different company.

I got the permanent role again through networking, so they couldn't necessarily keep me. Once they hired managers they didn't need an intern anymore. They were fully staffed. The great thing is that they gave me gleaming recommendations. They connected me with their network. I actually got a job offer in Texas with a prime general contractor out there. I didn't go to Texas. I stayed here. But networking has been how I've been able to move around. I've been with Swinterton for 4 and a half years now, too and we have like 20 offices. So if I wanted to move to our offices in Texas or an office in New York, that is a potential opportunity.

Did you utilize resources around campus in your time in school that played a role in your success?

Let's see, so I actually switched my major 3 times. I had started as pre-med and I think I actually really utilized my academic advisors a lot. I was also very lucky that I had the Daniels fund scholarship so my advisor from the Daniels fund, and my academic advisor at DU were very well connected. We had check-ins every quarter, and it was always to make sure that we were tracking to graduate on time, especially because I switched my majors, making sure that my credits were not wasted in any way. I was pretty active on reaching out and setting up appointments every time I had to register for classes to make sure that I was on track. So I  think I was very fortunate to have that support system. I do think you have to put in a little bit of work and seek their attention as well. You have to make the appointment, you have to get in front of them, and stay consistent. At the same time you're building that relationship with your advisor. So they know who you are after your second and third year.I think it goes a little bit of both ways. At the beginning it can be a little bit intimidating but I was very fortunate enough to utilize my academic advisor. I think there's also a lot of organizations on campus were very supportive.

I was involved with a number of clubs throughout, like different stages of my academic career, but they had a lot of support systems at the Daniel's College of Business. I would go in for career fairs. I would sign up for all the lists I could in case there's something I could make.

We had a Latino Student Alliance, the Black Student Alliance. It was really nice to say like, hey, what are you guys doing? People that had similar majors with me that I had questions for like, how did you do this? How did you do that? I talked to a lot of Daniels Fund kids that were seniors when I was a freshman like, what advice would you give me? What professors would you recommend? Is it worth doing this track? So I think a lot of it was making sure I was involved with these organizations, but getting connected with the right people and making sure that I was asking all the questions.

What was your experience moving districts when you were younger?

At the time, if I remember correctly, DPS ( Denver Public Schools) wasn't doing very well. When I was a younger kid, Denver North High School had a very low retention and graduation rate, and so my older sister would have been going to North. My mom was like, how are they gonna get scholarships to go to school, like we can't pay for that stuff. We should put them in better schools so they have better opportunities. From there my older sister was the one that got into JeffCo. It had something to do with how far you live in that area or something and my grandma lived closer so we used her address to get in, and they made that exception. Basically my older sister went in  and that's how I got in through the feeder school system. So she got into JeffCo and I got automatically pulled into it  with my little sister. So we all completely went to JeffCo.

The whole thing there was JeffCO had AP classes and we didn't even know what that was at the time to be honest. My older sister was born in Mexico, and they didn't migrate here until she was like 5 or 6, so she was a little bit older. My mom had no idea how everything worked. My sister was the first to go to high school. She's the oldest of all of our cousins so literally the first.  So my mom wanted to make sure that we were maximizing the opportunity. My sister kind of had to bite the bullet for all of us. We kind of followed, but the whole idea was that they offered AP classes. 

They told us they offered classes that give you college credit. They were more advanced than what they were teaching at different grades. So when I transferred to JeffCo, it was my third grade year and I swear I knew nothing. I didn't know what was going on. I wanted to go back because I felt so out of pocket. But they had the Gifted and Talented programs. They had AP coursework. They had all these clubs,sports, things like that. So we commuted every day for years even when my parents moved. 

When you were in high school, what challenges did you face that might have stopped you from pursuing a post-secondary education?

I think college was always the goal. My parents would always say  la única herencia que te podemos dejar es la educación and getting the most education that you can so that you're set up for life. So that was always the goal. I think the biggest hurdle was the financial component. My older sister went to Metropolitan State University , and at the time, I think tuition was also very different from what it is now. But she got a lot of Federal financial aid, so she had school paid for. Now that whole process is different, and so I had to apply for the right scholarships by myself. I had to write these essays by myself. My sister didn't have to do that. I didn't have that like reference or support. Really, she was like I don’t know I didn't have to do all of that stuff.  I was kind of on my own. I actually had one advisor in high school that was super helpful. She reviewed all of my essays for me, but I had to go and seek out these scholarships on my own. I had to go and write these applications on my own, and send them to her to review so that we can apply. I was very fortunate to have received the Daniels fund, and even that was a very robust application process. The process starts really early in the year. It starts like August and September. The applications for the first one you are doing in November, so I was very fortunate to even know about it because I did research in my junior year. I had cousins that were seniors and had  missed all of these deadlines. I can't even apply, even if I wanted to, and it's like, how else do you know that these even exist? So that was a hurdle.

At the time I was like, how can I get these AP credits to transfer. What does that mean? What does that look like? What major do I want? I think that was very scary, like when I was looking at schools I was just like, what can I get into? I didn't even look at what programs they offered. I didn't know if they had an awesome business school and not a great science program. I went in as a science major and so if that was the case , I should have gone to like Regis University for their nursing program or whatever they may have. So I didn't know any of those things. I was just trying to get into schools. I only applied  to local schools. I couldn’t even afford an out of state college, so I didn’t even look at that.

I think my biggest hurdle was knowing what was even out there and knowing about all the things you could do with these different career paths.

What memories do you have of being a first generation college student? What

challenged you and what surprised you?

So DU in particular, is not a very diverse school. I actually hear this a lot, but I went to predominantly white schools going to JeffCo, so I was used to the lack of diversity. When I went to DU, fortunately it wasn't quite a culture shock for me, but for a lot of people like my brown people counterparts, the culture shock was huge. It turned people off culturally. You didn't feel welcomed in your classes. I think one of my biggest shocks was in my business class. A lot of business students come from wealth, and a lot of their parents were business owners. Naturally they had a job lined up for them. So I remember I was sitting in my economics class, I think it was my first economics class and the professor asked “Can you raise your hand if you've ever worked in the service industry”. I sit in the front row in the class so I'm over here raising my hand. I turn around and there's one other person who had their hand raised in this intro class of maybe 50 to 75 students. In this entire class only 2 people raised their hands. That was like my biggest “oh shit”  moment where I was like, really none of you have had a job before like really like that blows my mind. But then he would say it like he was kind of moving up the ladder and  he asked how many have had internships before, and a few people raise them. When he asked what internship they had, it was like, oh, for my dad's company doing so and so.. 

That's the first time that I really had a humbling moment of like, you're really at the bottom of the food chain. Literally nobody else had worked a job before so there was a clear socio-economic gap. There was a realization that was very humbling. Like I was aware, but not aware really until you're sitting in a room when you're noticing everybody around you being in a much different status than you are and the hurdles that they have overcome are very different than yours. So that was where my shock really came from. But if anything it is empowering. Like hey we're all still sitting in the same classroom, learning the same thing, getting the same education, let's keep it pushing right? So that was tough. 

Culturally, I know a lot of people, you all know that have joined Greek life and have very similar struggles as well. I think that was always a common conversation of this is so expensive, I need to constantly apply for scholarships, I need to find a second or third job, or something near campus. Those were always like common struggles or common conversations that kind of never really went away.

Talk about what it was like being a daughter in a traditional Mexican household to leave for college.

I was the first one to move out. My older sister commuted a lot, and so I was the first one that actually left the nest. It's funny, every weekend I would have to come home. MY parents would wait for me every weekend and If I didn't come they would ask me what do you have to do out there that you can't do at home. My dad would call me on the weekends every night like at 9:30-10pm to see what I was doing, and make sure I wasn't going out. So it was hard. It was hard to find your own independence. It was very hard to have peace in the home with mom and dad, but also feel like you're having that college student experience. So I struggled with that quite a bit. 

My parents are very old school, traditional Mexican parents. They were like you don't need to be out there. You go there Monday through Friday. And back home…. So it had its challenges. But I'm really glad I was able to do it because I was able to become more independent. I had to learn how to fend for myself in a different way. Simple things like making sure you're eating, making sure you're cooking. Once I had a kitchen, making sure you're grocery shopping, making sure you're kind of taking care of yourself in different ways. It was funny, like when I was scared I would fail a class or fail an exam or something, I would go home crying just for comfort. You tried really hard, you feel so defeated, and just gotta get away. So that was nice. 

But it was definitely very challenging. I don't think I ever got homesick to tell you the truth. I think it was really taxing on my parents because they were just not used to it. They were worried all the time. They would text or call all the time, and ask if there was anything I needed. They would go if I got sick and bring me soup and medicine and things like that. It's definitely a different experience as a first-gen student. Seeing peers that were like it's no big deal or any out of state students that were like I'm just on my own. I think it's a cultural thing as well that we're just much more family driven, and the concept of family means something very different for us. 

How was your experience studying abroad?

I studied in Sevilla, Spain, which is in southern Spain, and they had 2 schools at the time. One was just like a general school. The one that I went to was like the business school so it allowed me to transfer back a lot of credits. They counted towards my major and my minor. They actually put me so ahead because I got really sick one year, so I had to take time off school and then I had to do summer school to catch up. My study abroad actually put me ahead so that I could graduate early. But I went to the business school, and it was a fun experience. It's not what I thought Spain would be, but I'm really glad I went. It was more of a smaller town compared to Madrid. I lived with a house mom. It would have been a house family, but it was just a single person who just wanted to have kids around. I got to live with the locals in the city. I had to take public transportation. There's only like one line that would go up the town like that was it. The last stop was my school, and then that would come right back.

I took business classes, a cooking class, a wine class, and some literature classes for Spanish.

Then while I was there, I got to travel because it's much cheaper to fly within Europe once you're there. I went to Scotland for a little over a week, then I went to Portugal. I went to a bunch of other major cities in Spain, and also went to France. I was in Paris while there was a terrorist attack, so that was fun. But we made it back. So it was a little bit of everything. But I'm really glad I did it. I would encourage anyone to do it if they have the option to do so.

My parents were like, do you really need to go? They didn't even know the right questions to ask. So if anything they would tell me to inform myself the most I can. They would ask me for updates all the time. I think leading up to it because I did it all on my own I was just like, give me this or give me my birth certificate. I need this for my passport. Things like that, and so I think they were just really supportive and scared at the same time. But I will tell you ,when my little sister went to South Korea it was like, where are you going next? Go, go, go!. I kind of ripped the band aid for them, and then, after that it was kind of the new standard which I love. But it sucks, you know. I always tell them every sister had to walk, so the next one could run. When I moved out to campus it was kind of expected that my sister would move out to campus and live out there as well. When I studied abroad it was kind of expected for her to go abroad as well. It wasn't shocking. It was more excitement for her, but with me it was a concern, and they were like, why are you so crazy? Why can't you stay put? You always want to do these crazy things, so it was really unheard of in the family.

But I was the first one in my family to fly in a plane. None of us had ever been on a plane before. Especially overseas in a foreign country that wasn't Mexico. Even then we don't go to Mexico that often. But It was still very scary for them. But I think I peeled back these layers, and then with my sister. It was like, when are you going?

What advice would you give your younger self?

I think my biggest one would be Listen to los consejos de tus papas. They kind of nagged at times, but honestly, they were so right. They were very supportive, and I think it all kind of paid off. For me, my biggest driver as a young high schooler was always that I want to make my parents proud. I want to make sure all of their sacrifices were worth it. I want to prove that I did it. You know they planned the work, and I'm working the plan. I think that was a big driver. I would say find what drives you and keep pushing, but ultimately I had to do it for myself. I think what I've seen now is I switched my majors because it was what I wanted to do. I did what felt easier for me. I only knew what I could do once I was there. I think another piece was to listen to your intuition. Find your driver and stick with it.

 I don't know what else I could say, I think using your network was probably the best thing I could have done. That was probably the best thing that I did for myself is finding a network and keeping up with it. I'm really glad I did that at a younger age. I still continue to do it, but I'm glad I learned it then because I see people now that are too shy to ask questions.You've got to leverage your network to leverage  the strength of others to benefit you is probably the other thing. If you don't know anything that's okay. But somebody does, so leverage that strength and get out there.

What has helped you overcome obstacles in your life?

My biggest thing has been my younger sister. I don't care what it is, but you have to do better, and I'm setting the bar pretty high, so get up there. It worked, my little sister did it. I couldn't do science. She did science. I know she won't admit it, but I think it's a little bit of competitive nature in her to one up me, but I love it. I would love to leave Colorado at some point, even for a little bit, and then come back home. But I can't find it in my heart to leave my parents. It just weighs too heavy on me. I've had opportunities to do so. Even recently I had an opportunity to move to New York, and I shut it down. My sister moved. She went to San Diego. She has an awesome job for an awesome company at the perfect time to work in pharmaceuticals, post- pandemic. She did that. I think that i's what has always driven me. 

My older sister got us this far. I need to keep it pushing. I need my younger sister to see that we can do it. She needs to do better. I have a 10 year old and a 12 year old niece now, too, and I try to tell them all the time, you need to travel. Where do they want to go, so that they can already think about the concept of traveling as opposed to being scared of the world because everything is “so dangerous.” I think we grew up with that, and I was able to break free from that, and I want to make sure that we keep that going. I think that pushes me. The fear of failure pushes me. The fear of caving into stereotypes pushes me, but I think more than anything, it's your drive and your aggression to want to do more that beats the drive. How aggressive are you in reaching those goals? When you get tired you gotta find that aggression again to keep pushing when it matters most. So for me, it's been more or less for my sisters to keep doing better, for my nieces to keep doing better, for us to push our family. Somebody's got to take care of my parents when they're older. I think it's gonna be me, I’m already preparing myself for that, you know. But I would say that probably my biggest driver is making all of the sacrifices worth it. You don't get that far to just turn back and walk back downhill.

Who is your biggest influence and why?

My biggest influence? Personally I would say my dad. He's my biggest heartache. It's my dad. I think both of my parents are up there, but maybe it's because I am a daddy's girl. My dad is the primary breadwinner. My mom hasn't worked for a while because she took care of the kids. But I see the strain on my dad's body. I see the strain on his health. He recently had a shoulder injury, and had all of these surgeries and things like that. We've had financial struggles throughout my lifetime as well. I see the burden on my dad the most. He does so well of trying to hide that from us. But it almost hurts because we're at an older age. Now we can be vulnerable with each other, and maybe I can help. But they're like, “No, I'm the parent. You're the child. It's my responsibility”... and so it's always been kind of a challenge to overcome. But I just see the drive my dad has, and I think he's the reason why I keep pushing. He didn't go to school, but he is one of the wisest people I have ever had the opportunity to talk to. It doesn't matter what professional I talk to, my dad will give the same advice, if not more or better. He is just very wise. He's very smart, and he works harder than anyone that I know. It breaks my heart to see how hard he works, and not be able to help him in the ways that I wish I could. I think that my driver is “I’m going to take care of you one day. You're not gonna have to work as hard.”

If someone were to tell the legend of Gladys Juarez, what do you hope they would say?

She took a risk. I think that will probably be my biggest takeaway. I think a lot of the things I've done in my life felt risky because I was the first to do them. Moving away and going into college, studying abroad, hopping on a plane, taking these job opportunities without knowing what they were. I have already quit a job and found another job. But that's so risky, you're scared if this isn't the right decision. What about this? What about that? I own my own home. I bought my own place without knowing things on my own, without having anyone to kind of guide me through it from a personal standpoint. Tell me what to do, and everyone's always like. We can't tell you what to do. So it took a lot of risk, and I think that's the scariest part of growing up. The scariest part of being first-gen is taking those risks, so I want people to think I took risks to say she was adventurous and she was a boss Latina and she's paving the way. It's hard to talk about yourself in those ways, but I think that would hopefully be the key takeaway that I took those risks. I also talk a lot like it has never changed but it has been worth it because networking moves mountains and so I would say be you,she's socialized her way through, but it was worth it. You have to network. You gotta get out there. You gotta build relationships.