Four female students at Meridian Community College are doing their part to prove Precision Machining Engineering Technology is not just a man’s world anymore.

One, Kyra Moore, will graduate from the program during MCC’s commencement this Friday at the Temple Theatre and already has a job lined up at Hol-Mac Corporation in Bay Springs. Another, Marisol Garcia, is in her second year and is expected to graduate in the spring, while McKinely Jones and Hannah Buchanan are first-year students.

“I like to say it’s the guy’s version of arts and crafts, that’s what I call it,” Jones said, jokingly, of the MCC program. “It’s pretty fun, and I am really enjoying it.”

Precision machining involves shaping large pieces of material into precise parts that meet exact specifications. It’s used in almost every aspect of manufacturing and industry from the production of surgical devices to aircraft and automobile parts to the molding around a cell phone. Basically, if a product has parts, then some precision machining was used in manufacturing it.

“It’s more hands-on than I thought which is good, I like that,” Buchanan said of her first months in the program. “I have always liked doing stuff with my hands more so than book learning. And I do like the precision aspect a lot because I am a little OCD. Making it correct makes me happy.”

Long seen as a male-dominated field, precision machining is attracting a lot of females these days with its abundant job opportunities, high-starting salaries and companies looking to diversify their workforces.

“There is a huge demand, and movement, for women in manufacturing in general, particularly in CNC machining,” said Brian Warren, coordinator of the MCC Precision Machining Engineering Technology program. “The biggest driver is the amount of jobs that are open that go unfilled. For 50 years, we only recruited half of the population to fill these jobs.”

During his nearly 20 years coordinating the MCC program, Warren said he has taught about a dozen female students. This semester, two of the 13 sophomores and two of the 18 freshman are female, the most he has ever had at one time. Two of the students have also juggled the responsibilities of being young mothers while completing the program.

Precision Machining offers a one-year or two-year certificate or an associate’s degree for completion of the program.

“If a student finishes this program, four semesters, they are looking at $25 to $28 an hour straight out of school, up to $7,500 in sign-on bonuses. It’s not unusual to have students five years out of the program making $80,000 to $100,000 a year and, in many cases, you are not working holidays,” Warren said, which is what is attracting students of all ages to the program.

He said teaching female students is no different than teaching the male students because they all go through the same curriculum and complete the same projects and tests.

“When it comes to the projects, they’ll do them a little better because they pay more attention to the little details because the guys will want to rush,” he said of the female students. “Guys will race to see who can do it the fastest, but (female students) are more worried about theirs being right. A lot of employers will tell you the same thing. They love female machinists because they pay more attention to the little details.”

Jones, 20, a 2021 graduate of Lamar School, changed her career goals a few times before finally deciding on precision machining after her neighbor who works at MCC told her about the program.

“I like that it’s hands-on and it’s kind of more independent than other classes where you’d be in a class just listening to them talk about things,” she said of her precision machining classes. “I would probably zone out like two minutes into it, but here it is different. I am more of a hands-on learner anyway,”

Jones, who enjoys math, said she would like to pursue a job in the aerospace field after completing her degree at MCC. She said it feels pretty cool to explain to her friends what she does in class or to take a project home.

“I think it is really fun to say ‘look mom, I made this part.’ It’s kind of like show-and-tell when I finish a part and take it home,” she said.

Buchanan, who was homeschooled, said she also ended up in the program by chance.

“My aunt works for the college, and I got turned down for a job because I didn’t have a diploma. So I told her I needed a GED, and it’s so funny, because I told her that I am not going to college after that. I just want the GED. And then her being her, she got Dr. (Tom) Huebner, the MCC president, to tour me through and he sold it really well.”

Until this semester, she had never thought of working in manufacturing or machining. But, Buchanan said she has liked the program even better than she thought she would.

“I have always loved patterns and following instructions,” she said.

Buchanan hopes to find work making devices in the medical field when she finishes the MCC program or making parts in the gun manufacturing industry.

Jones and Buchanan said they both would recommend the program to other girls. Even though they are outnumbered by male students, they said it isn’t anything to feel anxious about. The guys have been helpful and accepting of them in the program.

“It’s actually not as bad as you think it would be,” Jones said. “I really did think they were going to be like ‘oh, she’s a girl. She’s going to need a little help here and there.’ But I end up helping some of them sometimes.”