November 2, 2022 – The drive to create. Put simply, that’s what has propelled Marley Passey into a career in manufacturing, despite the fact that she’s legally blind. “I’ve always really enjoyed making things, building little wooden toys,” Marley says. “And this is the natural progression of that, making these really big and complex metal or composite parts. I could be making something for an F-35. That’s insane!” She’s defying the odds, and she’s not alone.
Carmen Enriquez has overcome her own set of challenges in a field dominated by men. “I would’ve never thought I would be in an industry like this that seems so complex and foreign to me,” Carmen confesses. “In high school, I thought you had to be smart and have money to go to college. I had neither, but it doesn’t matter what you start out with; it just matters how hard you’re going to work. I really wish someone had told me all I needed was the desire to learn.” Carmen may sell her younger self short, but not anymore. She recently graduated at the top of her class at Davis Technical College in Utah. She and fellow classmate Marley are both defying the odds, and they have the beaming smiles to prove it.
Marley shares, “It’s incredible. I’m a pioneer. It’s so cool. This is something I never thought I could do before.” Carmen sums up her mindset, “I just feel like I can do anything!”
How They Started
About five years ago, IACMI identified Davis Tech as a best-in-class program and partnered with them to establish a national network for Advanced Composites Career Pathways (ACCP). The goal was to develop a skilled advanced composites manufacturing workforce throughout the country, with a focus on creating accessible pathways to learning and employment opportunities for everyone.
Educators at Davis Tech wanted to reach a more diverse set of students, including those with visual impairments, who are often overlooked but are considered an untapped resource. They started by checking out innovative workforce programs, such as Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc. in Seattle, Washington. Lighthouse manufactures over 3.4 million products for aerospace and government customers. It has been serving the blind and DeafBlind communities for over 100 years.
With guidance from their organization, Davis Tech established the Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Enhanced program and outfitted an Okuma CNC machine with special technology to be accessible for blind students. It featured an NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) screen reader which magnified and read text aloud on the machine. Marley was one of the first students to enroll. She explains, “CNC Enhanced levels the playing field for all abilities. They took a machine that’s so prevalent in industry and made it usable to a wider array of people. It was a test to see if they could do it and they discovered, yes, they can!” They found the blind students could complete the same metal machining curriculum as their sighted peers, with minimal adaptation that only cost a few hundred dollars.
Marley adds, “To be granted access to such an incredible piece of machinery and given impressive support from all the instructors here, it’s been so validating.” She completed a nationally recognized certification in machining through Davis Tech by 2020. Having discovered a passion for airplane manufacturing, Marley decided to continue her studies in the Composite Materials Technology program. That’s where she met Carmen.
Carmen had started working on automobiles, then explored welding, and eventually found she too was intrigued by working on aircraft. She shares, “From cars to planes to space rockets, my interests got bigger and bigger. As I learned how strong, lightweight, and reliable composites are, that was super interesting and drew me in.” Carmen also liked how clean the composites facilities were compared to automotive and welding shops. Aside from the pressure to be incredibly precise for airplane parts, Carmen felt laying up the material was easy to learn. The classes started acquainting students with the simpler machines, like big box ovens with a vacuum pump on the inside, and slowly worked up to the autoclave, which is essentially a giant pressure cooker.
When Disabilities are Advantages
As for Marley, since many of the processes in composites manufacturing are tactile and her touch senses are heightened, she felt she had an advantage. “It’s actually really astounding how little accommodation they needed to apply to make this program accessible to me,” says Marley. “In the lay-up techniques, you have to feel if there’s a wrinkle in your material; you find it, pull it out, fix it, it’s fine.”
“She’s really good at that,” boasts Carmen. With her braille tablet, Marley can read blueprints and with a special click ruler, she can measure most anything. “So when it comes to cutting out different materials, she doesn’t need me. She’s like, ‘Just tell me what to cut out.’ She can cut it out herself, measure it herself, lay it up herself. I was like, ‘Oh, okay. You can do it all’! Not to mention her incredible memory. She hears it once and remembers. Oh my gosh, she retains all this knowledge differently than I can.”
“Yeah, being blind isn’t necessarily a disadvantage,” Marley acknowledges. “I think that with the right accommodation, this industry can be very good for a blind individual.” It’s no surprise that she’s already found a job at that same company in Seattle that inspired her program years ago. She’s never lived anywhere except Utah, but Marley is ready for this next adventure. “I’ve tamed the beast! I get to say I’ve worked on airplanes. I’ve controlled this massive thing that could potentially cut your fingers off and I’m fine. I’m surviving and thriving. It’s a huge flex. I’ve never been so accepted and ready to be in industry before,” she adds. Her advice for those with adversities: “Don’t ever be afraid to try. You’re never going to know if you’ll succeed or fail if you don’t try. I’m loving every second of this.”
Carmen has found a job she enjoys cutting images for banners, wallpaper, and stickers at Fusion Imaging, where she’s been working since before graduation. “I’ll be driving down the street and see something I did and think, hey I cut that! It’s really neat.” Her most recent adventure includes the arrival of an adorable, baby boy. She’s loving being a mom but looks forward to getting back to work. Carmen’s advice to other young women defying their own odds: “Your ability to learn and your drive to learn is really what will get you far. It doesn’t matter where you come from, as long as you’re willing to have that drive.”
About Advanced Composites Career Pathways (ACCP):
A shortage of skilled laborers led to the creation of ACCP, which offers training programs with national standards in locations central to the Department of Defense manufacturing supply chain. ACCP prepares current and next-generation manufacturing workers through select two-year colleges—such as Eastern Florida State College and Enterprise State Community College–to produce military systems and components that assure defense technological leadership. IACMI and collaborators are establishing a national ACCP learning network to develop a skilled advanced composites manufacturing workforce.