Sitting under a tight crawl space, helping her dad with a faulty pipe, freshman Kylie Craven takes her part in the family plumbing business. 

“I started helping three years ago,” Craven said. “My parents would take me to the client’s house and let me help a little. I enjoyed it quite a bit, so when they started asking me if I wanted to help out more, I agreed.”

Craven typically helps out by cleaning up the work area. She mops, sweeps and organizes after the job is done. She also gets to help out with plumbing, electrical work and painting when her parents need the extra hands.

“I have learned how to use a lot of electrical equipment and how to fix plumbing issues,” Craven said. “I’ve also learned that you don’t always get it right the first time, but that doesn’t mean you can give up, because people are still counting on you.”

Craven has a lot of fun throughout her years of helping in the business, and gains many valuable experiences from it. 

“My favorite part is probably laughing and hanging out with my family,” Craven said. “And my favorite job was definitely the time we did plumbing in my house. We had to get in the crawl space and fix some stuff, and we also had to fix things above as well.”

Craven believes that helping out in her family business will not only help her with life skills, but also in her future careers. Whether or not Craven decides to follow this pathway, she thinks that she has still learned lessons that will assist her later in life.

 ”I don’t really know what I want to be when I’m older yet,” Craven said. “I used to think I would want to do something like this, but I don’t know for sure. I was thinking about possibly being a mechanical engineer in the future, and having had experience from the business will help me if I ever have issues with plumbing. It will also prevent me from having to call a company since I know how to do it on my own.”