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March 30, 2021Automotive Duo are Shifting into High Gear in a Male-Dominated Field
A pair of Capital Region BOCES students have found their passion in automotive repair and in the process are working to challenge the perception of who mechanics are.
Destiny Honsinger and Makaya King are seniors in BOCES’ Career & Technical School Automotive Trades Technology program on the Schoharie Campus and are seeking to build careers as automotive repair specialists. Once entrenched in the industry, the duo from the Cobleskill-Richmondville Central School District will be part of a small segment of the industry. In fact, only two percent of women are part of the 130,174 automotive mechanics in the U.S. according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“I like working on cars – I have my whole life,” said King during a break from getting an engine working again in the automotive lab on the Schoharie campus. “It made sense to come here.”
For Honsinger, the path into the industry was a little different.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do going into my junior year and my mother told me I had to start thinking about college, so I looked at the trades and found I liked automobiles,” she said.
Now the duo are among more than 70 students on the Schoharie and Albany campuses who chose CTE to learn the skills necessary to launch careers in the automotive repair industry.
March is Women’s History Month and throughout the month, Capital Region BOCES Career and Technical School will be shining a spotlight on women in the trades – those women who are challenging gender stereotypes and building solid futures through their time at Capital Region BOCES. Honsinger and King are among those to be profiled.
Both students said it has never phased them being in a room full of male students, nor has the perception some people have of who mechanics are.
Honsinger and King both said they enjoy the hands-on work and learning that a BOCES education affords.
“I like that you are working on stuff and working with others and the teacher isn’t hovering over you,” Honsinger said.
“I like hands-on working, the feeling of accomplishing something,” King added.
As to the future, Honsinger said she is planning to go to college to earn an associate’s degree in automotive repair while King isn’t quite sure what next year will bring.
“I am not sure what I am doing when I graduate, but I will know how to fix cars (thanks to BOCES),” she said.
Recruitment for the 2021-22 school year is underway. Anyone interested in information on attending our Automotive Trades program or any of our programs, go to https://www.capitalregionboces.org/visit-career-and-technical-ed/
