Britney Cawrse: 'You can always learn a new skill'

Britney Cawrse would like to say there’s nothing unusual about being a woman in Linn-Benton 社区 College’s machine tool technology program. But given she was the only one this past academic year—and there was only one, on average, in recent years before that—she concedes most women don’t appear to be making that choice. 

And that, 她说, is a shame. 

“It’s definitely something that women can do, because women were doing it in World War II when all the guys were at war and they had to keep the factories running,” 她说. “They were some of the best welders and machiners out there.

“If they can do it then, we can definitely do it now.”

Cawrse, of Scio, hopes to eventually open or manage her own machine shop somewhere 在路上. Now 36, she came to the profession a little later than some. 结婚了 to a mechanic and living on the Cawrse family farm, she was a stay-at-home mom for 七年. 但她 and her husband agreed it would be best to have a second income and a way of making a living on her own if anything should happen to him.

Cawrse said she’d been a special education assistant for the Scio School District in past years but didn’t feel that was right for her anymore. 于是她拿出了 newspaper and looked through the help-wanted ads.

“There were so many jobs for machinists,” 她说. I’ve always been of the mind that whatever age you are, you can always learn a new skill.”

She called 博天堂官方 and inquired about enrolling in the program. 大学官员 called her back and invited her to Career Technical Education Signing Day, which happened 要等到第二天. “It was a little awkward for me, because it was full of high-schoolers,” 她回忆道. So was her first class, although at least two other participants were 在她这个年纪. 但她
不阻止.

“I was different, and I always love to stand out,” 她说. “我喜欢与众不同.” 

Besides feeling a little out of place age-wise, Cawrse was concerned she wouldn’t 要能跟上进度. 

“I love to sew and so I was just kind of hoping that it would kind of be like that. 但事实并非如此，”她说. “It was a whole new world to me. 有点吓人 first honestly, because big machinery is kind of intimidating. 但是他们真的 good about just kind of walking you through it.”

Cawrse was relieved to learn she wasn’t the only one in class with no experience. But after that, she didn’t have much time to think. The instruction was thorough, 但快节奏的. She soon learned she didn’t have any time to be intimidated.

Her classmates, 她说, never seemed to either notice or care that she was the only 小组中的女性. She said she some次 felt the instructors were slightly harder on her than on her male counterparts, but in retrospect, she’s glad they were.

“A few weeks in, I realized they’re wanting me to succeed, so they’re pushing me a little bit harder, and I really appreciated that,” Cawrse said. “They were there constantly, not to bring me down but to make sure I succeeded to the best of my potential.”

Living on a farm with a mechanic spouse, Cawrse was lucky enough to have ready access to a machine shop when shelter-in-place orders came through and shut down campus classrooms. By then, 她说, she’d learned at least the basics of shaping a piece of steel or aluminum into a part someone might need.

“I made a lot of bushings - like washers, but thicker,” 她说. “我丈夫的车 shop needed some parts made by machinists, so I just made some bushings for them. It was something I couldn’t have done the year before, for sure.” 

Cawrse said she’d advise anyone considering the 博天堂官方 program to jump in and do it. Don’t forget to ask for help, 她说 - the instructors are ready to assist at all 次. 

"This whole school year was a rollercoaster ride for me. I felt like I just threw myself in the middle of the ocean without a life preserver, and I just had to swim. I had to learn to do it, and I couldn’t give up,” Cawrse said. 

Family support, particularly from her mother-in-law - a retired teacher - was critical, 她说. That meant her sons, now 7 and 4, had help with homeschooling while she was doing her own homework.

“There was a lot of mom guilt. 现在还有. Am I spending enough time with my kids?” Cawrse说. “But I know in the end, it was all for them. 他们在监视我 and I know that they’re learning so much more from me going back to school that I 你能想象得到吗?.” 

“I want them to know it’s OK to get their hands dirty.”