TROY, N.Y. (WRGB) — A record number of female students have enrolled in automotive technology programs at Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC) this fall, marking the highest number the institution has seen in its history.
According to a release, in total, 13 women are enrolled in automotive-related majors this semester within the Applied Technologies Department.
“I am proud of the strides that we are making in recruiting and enrolling more female students in programs with a historically male demographic,” Officer in Charge Louis Coplin said. “Increasing access, diversity and inclusivity in every area of the college is a critical part of our mission. Though the college’s student body is 53 percent female, seeing an incremental increase of women in automotive programs is a noteworthy shift that will be greatly beneficial to our workforce partners.”
Senior Kadence Zaloga is one such student. However, the enrollment this fall is a shift from what she experienced as the only female in her class in this program.
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“People are getting more comfortable with seeing women coming into the shop, and I think they’re kind of seeing it as we all are the same, we all work the same,” Zaloga told CBS6. “I love seeing, in the younger classes, all the women that are in there. I know, for me, I’m the only woman in this senior year, so it’s just been me for my two years. So, seeing these women in the freshman year makes me really happy, makes me excited for them.”
Zaloga said she became interested in Automotive Technical Services after watching Formula 1 racing and NASCAR.
“Seeing those machines and how they perform has grasped my interest, and I wanted to learn how to work on them, and it would be awesome to maybe one day end up there, working as a mechanic,” she said. “Today, we’re working on a customer car and we’re running diagnostics on it. It came in for a check engine light, so we have the scanner hooked up, and we’re trying to break down some codes. We have a code on there for a throttle position sensor and then a catalytic converter.”
Alumni, students and staff are able to bring their vehicles into the shop for a $15 fee, plus parts, for students to work on. Applied Technologies Department Chair Chris McNally said this allows the students to learn what it’s really like to work in an active automotive shop.
“This is our automotive technical services program. We also have collision repair, body repair, painting. We have an automotive management course. We have an electric vehicle course. So, we’re training people to go out into the field to be service technicians, to fix the vehicles, to deal with the customers, to run repair shops eventually, and the idea is to make sure that the students are familiar with and comfortable with fixing modern vehicles, so the electrical systems, the control systems, as well as still doing the maintaining repairs that people are familiar with – oil changes, tires, front end alignment,” he told CBS6. “The students have to be able to have skills and expertise in all those areas, and that’s what we’re shooting for.”
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While the goal of teaching students remains the same, McNally said that there have also been focused efforts over the past decade to diversify the field.
“The college has been running a Girls in STEM program, which reaches out to girls and young women to show them the opportunities that are available in technology fields,” he said. “If you have a young girl in 5th, 6th grade and she likes to work with her hands, she like to do that kind of stuff, but maybe socially, she’s being drawn away from that, the Girls in STEM really helps that girl, that young woman recognize this is something that she can do and that we need her to be involved and we need her to be doing that kind of work.”
For Zaloga, she said she is eager to see where the future takes her and the rest of the female students who have since enrolled in automotive tech programs at HVCC.
“Being able to constantly have all this hands-on learning and whatnot has definitely helped me improve with my learning,” she said. “It’s [a] program for everybody and anybody that really wants to get into it to do it, and a lot of times now, the women coming into this program have family that have influenced them, wanting to get into it, or them learning from a young age, being around that environment, working on cars, and I think just seeing women and whatnot working in the program has definitely opened up a door and is letting them have that confidence to want to come into this industry and work and learn.”