WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas — Welding students at Taylor High School and Texas State Technical College are bending metal and, metaphorically, breaking glass in class.
"I may not have had a woman role [mentor] for me, but I had someone else that was a mentor for me to help me see what I can do for myself and get better," Jacqueline Ehrlich, one of the welding instructors at Taylor High School, said.
Ehrlich teaches alongside Scott Bishop. Bishop started the program about 10 years ago as an offshoot of the school's agriculture program.
"The State of Texas started doing programs of study where it was more where students can get more experience in the welding, more classes," Bishop said.
Bishop has nearly 10 girls participating in the welding program, more than ever before at any one time. For the first time in school district history, one of the girls earned a welding certification before graduating from Taylor ISD.
"He just ran out of the room and went to the office and he was like, 'Oh, my God, look what you did. Look what you did!'" Senior Monti Birchard recalled. "And I was like, 'What? Where did he go?' Like, 'You were the first female!' Like, he didn't tell me until I was certified. So I had no idea that that was on my shoulders or anything."
Birchard, who has plans to go to a trade school in Louisiana before pursuing something in welding full-time, now shares her experience with younger women in the school district, all the way down to middle school students.
"We take a lot of props to the middle school and show them, like, in detail: This is what you start out at. This is what you're working up to. This is what we're here to do," Birchard said.
Other students in class said they were always interested in welding, but seeing Birchard succeed finalized the decision for them to enter the program.
"If she can do it, I can do it, too," Kalee Sandoval, a sophomore, said. "I kind of grew up being outside and like, you have to, like, basically just hard work. And I knew I wanted to do that, and I knew I wanted to make a career out of it. So I chose welding because there wasn't a lot of females in it. There is a lot of females in mechanics, and I didn't really see any females besides Monti in here, so I decided to join on this."
"It was just something different. We don't have very many girl welders," Tessa Hunsaker, a junior who transferred to Taylor after moving from Idaho, said.
Hunsaker was taking welding classes in Idaho before moving to Central Texas.
"I'm considering going into [agriculture] teaching and then specializing in being a welding teacher," Hunsaker said.
For students at Texas State Technical College, they learn from women with decades of experience in welding like Samara Fleener, who goes by Sam.
"It's pretty well known that there's not a huge amount of women that pursue, welding," Fleener said.
Fleener is one of three women welding instructors at TSTC. The program has two men teaching students as well.
"It's common knowledge women welders that, you know, you're going to have to be better to really break up, break through the barrier. You're going to have to be," Fleener said.
Fleener and Ehrlich know being teachers, they play a role in showing their female students they belong in an industry historically filled with men.
"I've heard this since I was a kid, that girls' handwriting is a lot better and that leads to that fine motor skill. So women in welding nine times out of 10 are better welders than some of the guys in the industry," Ehrlich said. "Don't be scared. There's a place for everyone in this world, and this industry is so awesome."
"I think being in education, being a teacher, you know, it's really leveled that playing field, so to speak," Fleener said.
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