Senior Vivian Green is starting a path in engineering by working as an apprentice mechanic at Chris Murphy’s Automotive.

She started off working at the shop as a necessity because her repair costs were staking up for her Jeep.

 “Once I got into it, I realized how fun and engaging the work is,” she said.

Green’s mom taught her the basic car maintenance, and her uncle, an engineer, taught her “more complex repairs, focusing on the mechanical reasoning.”

Being a mechanic is a unique job to have as a high school student because it’s a trade that’s difficult to get into. You would need to go into trade school and have a lot of certifications, but for Green her opportunity was built on an unpaid summer internship.

On weekdays, she usually works from 3-6 p.m, checking fluids, breakers, filters, among other repairs. Green also spends a lot of time learning from the head technician on more complex fixes. In a week, Green works 15 hours at the mechanic shop. 

Green likes how her work aligns perfectly with her school hours. 

“I really appreciate the convenient and focused hours- three hours per weekday with weekends free, which works perfectly with my school schedule,” she said.

She plans on staying at the shop for summer, and then, hopefully, finding another mechanic to work for when she attends college at Baylor university, majoring in mechanical engineering. 

“The biggest draw was realizing that the concepts I was learning in school were directly applicable in the shop, which made the schoolwork feel meaningful and I am more motivated to learn,” Green said.