Marcy grew up in a family who loved cars. Her dad was a mechanic and her mom a lover of all things automotive. All of her uncles and the majority of men in her family also made their living as mechanics.

Whenever her uncle and her dad were working on a car out in the back of their house she would go over and be captivated by what she saw. She had many questions and they were always patient in sharing what they knew. They took the time to answer her questions and to feed her curiosity. They pointed out the different parts of an engine and how things worked together. She absorbed the love of cars that was all around her. She may not have realized it at the time, but this was the beginnings of her mechanic training.

Not only did she have an inquisitive mind, but she was also good with working with her hands. From an early age she would take things apart and put them back together. One time she even took apart her uncle's cash register and reassembled it. He wasn't too pleased with the results, as the cash register no longer worked. But he was happy to see her mechanical ingenuity and knew that she was destined for a career that would put these talents to good use.

Her parents never did anything to impede her interests, they were happy that she shared the love of cars that was such a huge part of her family.

“Not every parent is happy about females doing that type of work. They always encouraged me.”

This love of taking things apart and putting them back together has served her well. Today she is a diesel transmission technician at Florida Detroit Diesel-Allison. And her own words in describing what she does are as methodical and precise as the work she does every day.

"I take them all apart. I check to see what's wrong. I take out all of the bad parts and put in new ones."

Marcy is a graduate of Universal Technical Institute’s Orlando, Florida campus where she focused on diesel and automotive core training. Her schooling helped her develop the foundation of knowledge that is still useful every day at her job at Florida Detroit Diesel-Allison.

One of the lessons she took away from UTI was an organized approach to doing work. There’s the disassembling of the components and laying them out in a logical way once removed. Then there’s the process of putting everything back together. And following what she learned, if there are any parts that are left over she knows exactly where they go.

During her studies at UTI she got an education on the technical side of things, which was the information in the textbooks, but she also found what she learned from her instructors just as valuable.

“When you’re there you get the instructor’s input on what’s covered in the textbook but you also get the knowledge they’ve gained through experience and they’re open to share it with you.”

It was this generosity in sharing their insights that helped her develop her own understanding of the course materials. She also appreciates that there was this same spirit of openness in letting students ask questions about what they were studying.

“I loved how understanding the instructors were. No question was stupid. They would answer, no matter how basic the question.”

Marcy is grateful to be taking her talents of working with her hands and that love of taking things apart and putting them back together in the job that she does today. She had the support of her family to enroll in automotive technology classes and the drive to pursue her passions. And UTI was there to help her develop the foundation of knowledge she needed to find that occupation that would be her life’s work.