Girl to be Electrician

Nobody talked to her the first day in class, except the teachers.

By day two, she'd won her new classmates over.

Nina Day, the daughter of Mary and Gary Day of Six Lakes, and now a graduating senior at Montabella High School, signed up for a class in construction trades last year and was the only girl in the class.

The boys soon learned she wasn't there for decoration.

"They saw I was doing pretty good and they are now some of my best friends I'm going to have for a long time," she said.

Way back when she was in the seventh grade, Nina - rhymes with Dinah, not Deena - had said she wanted to become an electrician when she grew up.

She was told by some that girls couldn't become electricians.

Her parents pushed that thought right of her head, telling her that she could indeed do whatever she wanted. With their help, Nina is setting out to prove that an electrician she will be.

There is some question, however, whether any encouragement was necessary on the part of her parents.

"She's going to do what she's going to do," her mother said.

The former Irish dancer - "She's a little bit of thing," said one of her instructors Bill Leonard - is heading to Mid Michigan Community College. There, she'll take electrical courses in residential, commercial and alternative systems.

Last year, Nina and her classmates built a house.

"It was kind of good for her to be a part of that," her mother said. "She helped with everything. And if she's going to be an electrician, she needs to see how it's done."

Nina is the kind of young woman who, in addition to playing and excelling at sports such as basketball and volleyball, likes to take things apart, her mother said.

"I've always liked to work with my hands," Nina said. "I like to fix things. I like saying, 'I did that.'"

With a 3.7 grade point average, Nina said her favorite regular class is math. She's on the student advisory board and is a member of the National Honor Society.

She has also won an award.

The Michigan Department of Education's Office of Career and Technical Education has something called "Breaking Traditions Award."

This is for students who are successful in programs that are nontraditional for their gender. A male student might do well as a nurse, for example, while Nina builds a house.

The eligibility requirements were pretty stiff, with academic requirements and leadership roles. And Nina was chosen as one of 14 students statewide to win the merit award.

She doesn't take all the credit herself. She couldn't have done it without her teachers Bill Leonard and Dean Gage, she said. She was firm about that.

And what do her girlfriends think of her setting out to become an electrician?

"At first they thought it was weird, now they think, oh, that's just Nina."

Linda Gittleman is managing editor of the Alma Morning Sun.
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