“I really enjoy just working on the body of the car and learning. Every new day, I just get more motivated,” Nivyayo said.
Austin Monchilov, the night class instructor, said the students are more invested in their projects if they’re working on something of their own. After they pass the initial busted-up fender assignment, they’re free to work on their own cars, he said.
Until he finishes his studies and a job offer manifests, Nivyayo is spending his evenings in the garage, picking Monchilov’s brain and taking painstaking care of every square inch of the Mustang. Even when he’s done with it, when it’s running perfectly and the silver body is pristine, he said he could never sell it. It has meant too much to him to ever give it up.
Inside the building and just a few doors down, Abbey Carlson is in the welding studio, wearing jeans with holes burnt through them and a funny cap to protect her hair. She’s the only woman in the nighttime welding class, and among few women on this side of the TCAT campus. Though welcome to enroll in these courses, women tend to congregate on the other side of the campus, where the cosmetology and aesthetics technology programs are housed.
Carlson, now 24, had initially intended to attend a four-year college, but her plans were derailed by an addiction to alcohol. After dedicating herself to recovery, she decided she wasn’t entirely done with higher education.
“I knew I wanted to do a trade, but I couldn’t figure out which one,” Carlson said. “I’m a woman, I’m young and I’m decent looking, so the world is scary. Especially in fields with men.”
After researching her options, she concluded that welding would be the safest while also offering her the highest eventual earning potential, she said. So far, she’s enjoying her time at TCAT Nashville, and she feels respected and safe.
“I love it so much. I finally have hope for the future,” Carlson said. “Finally, I feel like I’m going to accomplish something in life.”
Still, it’s not easy. Before she reports to the welding shop each afternoon for five-hour stretches of studying, she spends her days waitressing at an upscale Italian restaurant in the city.
At a campus in Shelbyville, about 60 miles south of Nashville, Jesus Pedraza, 18, is making the best of his plan B.
Pedraza thrived in high school and dreamed of studying electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. But when his mother started having medical challenges last year, he decided to stay in Shelbyville with her. His high school was so close to TCAT Shelbyville that the students sometimes walked over to eat breakfast in its cafeteria; the teachers and administrators at the high school encouraged the students to consider applying there after graduation.
After graduating from high school last spring, Pedraza enrolled in TCAT’s electrician training program. The courses equip students to work in residential, commercial or industrial settings; the curriculum is among several at TCAT Shelbyville that are seeing an increase in demand, said Laura Monks, president of the college. To accommodate all the interested people, she said they offer both day and night courses and dual enrollment for students from nearby high schools.
Now, Pedraza studies from 7:45 a.m. to 2 p.m, and then reports to a local Walmart distribution center, where he works from 3 p.m. to midnight each day.
He said he enjoys what he is learning and likes the guys in his class. But he still wonders what things may have been like at a four-year college.
“I would have loved the challenge of being in electrical engineering, you know, having to do all the schoolwork and just the idea of college life,” he said. “Sometimes I sit down, and I think how different it would have been if I was living in Knoxville right now. But at the end of the day, you know, it’s just the way life is. I mean, I wish I was also a millionaire, and I wish I drove two Lamborghinis. But it’s not the way it is.”
Monks said one of the things that makes TCAT appealing to students is the possibility that, toward the end of their program, they will be able to work in their desired field a few days a week while also getting credit toward their diploma, a system known as a “co-op” across the TCAT system.
For Brayden Johnson, 20, in his fifth trimester studying industrial maintenance automation, the co-op program has given him the chance to work as an electrical maintenance technician in a local factory that makes tubes for toothpaste. He’s working the night shift, which comes with a slight pay bump, and is earning about $26 per hour.
He hopes to stay in the job after he finishes at TCAT this spring, he said.
The same co-op opportunity is offered to some students at TCAT Nashville. Garrett said students generally are drawn to the hands-on design of the courses and the general philosophy that “You need to get your hands on the equipment, you need to start building stuff, breaking stuff and then learn how to fix that stuff.”
The opportunity to get real work experience before they graduate is an extra perk. The employer reports back to the student’s instructor so they know where the student is excelling and where they are struggling, and can work on those weaknesses on the days when the student comes to campus, Garrett said.
Cheven Jones began studying auto collision repair in September, and said he has already made major progress, transforming his lifelong enthusiasm for cars into real, applicable skills.
And it’s showing on his Lexus, he said. So far, he’s fixed a dent in the hood, replaced an entire door and replaced part of the rocker panel (the long strip of metal under the doors).
The game plan, Jones said, is to transform his car by the time he graduates, and have fun while doing it.
“It’s school, and I take it seriously. But you know, you come here, and it just feels more like you’re at a shop hanging out with your homies all day,” Jones said. “It’s a good feeling.”
After he graduates, he hopes to get a job in an auto body shop.
And he says he’ll keep working until someday he can afford a red 1982 Nissan Skyline R31, RS Turbo with bronze wheels---his dream car. Even if he can’t get one in perfect condition, at least he’ll know how to fix it up.
Abby Andrews