COLORADO SPRINGS — It's the ultimate take-home project. D20 high school '23 graduate Victoria Turner is now a homeowner of a house she helped build herself as a student.
Turner was part of D20's construction trade program at Liberty High School last year.
"I think it's going to be pretty cool that I built the house that I'll live in," said Turner.
Nearly 100 students helped build the house over the last three years. Turner did most of the drywall.
She thanks the program for getting her a job in roofing after graduation.
"A lot of my co-workers have said I'm the only female they've ever seen in the roofing business and some of them have been working for 30-plus years," said Turner.
As one of the only girls in the program, she wanted to carve a path for more to join.
"I think it's really cool to help other females who are like scared or whatever to be in male-dominated jobs to push them to change the workforce," said Turner.
Much of the housing material were donated by local construction companies.
"It meant a lot that it was going to a previous student, one that really learned and now she's in the trade as well," said the program building and construction teacher Jaime Hernandez.
Turner's mom helped her buy the 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom house. She said her mom is a teacher and wanted to support the program.
"At first I told my mom that we could buy it and then I made a joke about it would be like the biggest take-home project ever and she likes to have stuff that I do," said Turner.
The money from the home's purchase is going right back into the program. The class will start building another house next month.
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