b'THE AMERICAN DREAM COMES TRUE FOR SARAH HERNANDEZKORTE|YEAR IN REVIEWIf childhood Sarah could meet todaysTo this day, I go to the field or in meetingsreconnected with her mothersSarah, shed be surprised.with 15 people and I am the only female inSpanish roots in Los Angeles.She spent much of her early yearsthere, she said. Today, shes trilingualan asset on helping her father with his paint company,But that doesnt faze her anymore. In fact,diverse job sites. And while construction dreaming the entire time of a life far fromits a point of pride.was never the picture she painted in her construction sites. Im proud to not only be representingdaydreams, theres something poetic When I went off to college, I was like, Iwomen, but to be representing Hispanics.about finding success in the field where want to do something completely differentWhen they come into construction, theyreher own father got his start. than what my dads doing.just thought of as the labor, the fieldThats not a story to erase or reject,It makes her laugh now. She did go off toworkers. But we can be in higher-upbut to embrace. college, but then she dropped out. She hadpositions as well, she said. Im happyAnd thats exactly what Sarah has done. her family to support. Studying didnt payto be able to represent my family andShe picked a field that builds things. the bills. Her jobsshe had three of themeveryone migrating to the U.S. for a betterAnd then she built a lifehard fought,did. One of them was on a constructionlife. We can work our way up and we canhard won.project. Thats where a Korte crew noticedstand up there as well.her work ethic.Sarah is a second-generation American Sarah joined The Korte Company asand proud of it.a project engineer in 2019. Her firstHer father moved to Oklahoma from assignment was the 56,000-square-footRomania without knowing a lick of English. Deer Springs Village Shopping Center inThroughout Sarahs early childhood, her Las Vegas. She was the only woman on feisty Romanian grandmother wasthe job site. ever-present. In later years, she P_15'