When I was growing up in Florida (a 4th generation Floridian), I always loved to fix things. My best friend's dad was a mechanic and whenever I went to her house, I would watch her father work and try to help him. Of course, that made my friend mad, but I really enjoyed cars and learning how to fix them.
I graduated from high school with a 4.1 gpa. I was 12th in a class of 265 graduates. I went on to take some business school courses in accounting, but working took up too much of my time to graduate. I have worked a variety of jobs: as an emergency dispatcher for AAA (where I always wanted to know what was really wrong with the broken down cars), as a service manager for a auto body repair shop, as service manager for a trucking company, and as service manager for a truck repair business.
When I moved to North Carolina, I decided to become a full time mom. I loved every minute of my time with my kids, but it was impossible for our family to survive financially with only the one income from my husband. Not only could I not afford a new car, I could not even afford for a mechanic to fix the car I did have. So, I decided to return to school and become a mechanic! I found I really have a knack for diagnosing and repairing cars and trucks, and I graduated with honors in Automobile Technology from Tri County Community College in May 2002. I was only the second female to graduate the program in the last 10 years. I took a few months off to play with the children, but when my husband lost his job in October 2002, I applied for a job as a technician for the North Carolina Department of Transportation. After two months of waiting, I started working for them on Dec. 9th, 2002. I love the job and enjoy the challenge of diagnosing and repairing the NC State trucks and construction equipment.