“Girl power” comes to VGCC’s Applied Tech programs
From left: Dayra Hernandez, Darlene Beck, and Hali Wheeler represent increased female enrollment in VGCC's Welding program.
The girl-power movie “Barbie” grossed over a billion dollars this summer and earned the title of 2023’s movie of summer…but Vance-Granville has some serious girl power of our own going on during the fall 2023 semester. We have seen increased female enrollment in our Applied Technology programs of Automotive Systems Technology , Welding Technology , Electrical Systems , Electronics Engineering , and Mechatronics !
This is good news since North Carolina is #1 in the Southeast for advanced manufacturing, according to the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina . North Carolina has over 250 unique automotive manufacturing companies and over 75,000 jobs in just the plastic and chemical manufacturing fields. VGCC is doing its part to help make sure there are well-trained men and women to fill these job openings.
Rusty Pace, Program Head for Welding Technology, is quick to welcome female students into what’s traditionally a male-dominated field. “I love having females in the welding program,” he shared. “They are some of our best in the class because of their attention to detail.”
These ladies are not just great students; they are also blazing a trail for future females and setting an example for girls in elementary, middle, and high school.
Vance-Granville Community College tracks students that enroll in “nontraditional” programs of study, and we are proud that in 2021-2022 academic year, 22.98% of our students were enrolled in “nontraditional” programs. Thanks to these ladies and their girl power, we expect to see this percentage continue to increase at the College.
