Giselle McKinney, operations manager of the Center for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane and Xavier University (in gray) appreciates the efforts of students (left to right) Diana Novak, Margaret Richards and Nikki Greenfield who helped gut her flood-ravaged home. (Photos by Rebecca Mark)

Just as Rosie the Riveter became a cultural icon of the 1940s representing the can-do attitude of American women when the United States was at war, Sophie the Riveter may become a symbol of Tulane students who are helping to rebuild New Orleans. Fifteen young women are enrolled in a course, "Sophie the Riveter: Women Rebuilding New Orleans," offered at the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College Institute.

Each wearing steel-toed boots and a tool belt, the students set out on Saturdays for hands-on instruction in gutting houses, floating drywall, wielding power tools, hanging doors and other nitty-gritty skills.

The course came about when Tulane student Suzanna Talbot and her urban studies professor Catherine DiGeorge wrote a grant proposal for funding from the Newcomb College Institute.

"Through participating in various volunteer activities after the storm, I found myself connected to the community in a way I hadn't experienced before, and I also realized my ability to take on leadership roles and develop skills in manual labor," says Talbot, a senior with a double major in psychology and sociology, who serves as a teaching assistant for the course.

"My goal in designing this course was to provide a venue for other Newcomb women to empower themselves by learning traditionally male construction skills, and, more importantly, to experience New Orleans on a more meaningful level -- as a community in which they can play an integral role," Talbot says.

The grant from the Newcomb College Institute paid for materials and tools. The tool belts were provided by Lowe's at cost.

DiGeorge, whose own home in the Broadmoor neighborhood sustained damage from six feet of floodwater on the first floor following Hurricane Katrina, can speak to the utility of women learning how to rehab houses.

"I was a woman alone, gutting the house, tag-teaming with my husband, who was in Houston with the children," says DiGeorge, an adjunct professor of sociology, "Taking on such an overwhelming task for women can be empowering.

"Having a baby is challenging, and getting a PhD may be easier," adds DiGeorge, who says she lost two-thirds of her property, including priceless baby photos and her original Beatles record collection, in the flood. "I'll get another PhD before I'll go through that again."

Nikki Greenfield discovers the joy of manual labor in the innovative Sophie the Riveter class.

Co-teaching the course are Rebecca Mark, associate professor of English and interim executive director of the Newcomb College Institute; Felix Wai, founder and director of the Mardi Gras Service Corps; and Julie Groth, a licensed contractor. Six students from Connecticut College join the course one week when they volunteer for service in New Orleans.

The course is both in the women's studies program and provides public service credit, combining feminist theory on race and class with practical skills training. Meeting each Wednesday afternoon, the students discuss readings from books such as Hard Hatted Women and Spike Lee's documentary, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts."

They journal about what it's like to rebuild houses in devastated neighborhoods and participate in a story circle to share their experiences.

The story circle, from the Native American tradition, centers on the core belief that no one's voice is any more important than the others', instructs Mark. This exercise in active listening is an artistic form that can be a "wonderful tool for activists, and also a useful leadership tool for working with organizations, even corporations," Mark says.

In the story circle, Diana Novak, 18, a first-year student from Chicago, declares, "I would do anything for this place, not just because of the music or the culture but because it's a place where I became me."

No doubt the students are benefiting personally from the "Sophie the Riveter" course. And New Orleans is benefiting from their labors as well, says Wai, who founded the Mardi Gras Service Corps in response to the community's needs after Hurricane Katrina. Wai received a master's degree in environmental science from Tulane in 2002 as well as his undergraduate degree from Tulane.

"Anybody who is coming out to do manual labor to rebuild someone's house, whether it's once or 20 times, might feel like it's a drop in the bucket," Wai says. "But when you see the look on the face of a woman who has been helped so she can live in her home again, you can see the importance of what these volunteers are doing."