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Patricia Rice, an aviation maintenance technology student at ����ֱ��, recently shared her experience as a beneficiary of the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act (WIOA) during the SGTC WIOA board meeting in the John M. Pope Industrial Technology Center on SGTC’s Americus campus.

Rice went to work at the age of 18 as a baggage handler for Piedmont Airlines. It was a fitting place to begin her career. “My mom is a flight attendant, my dad is an A&P (airframe and power plant) mechanic, and my brother is a pilot in the Navy, so aviation is kind of in my blood, I would say.”

In time, Rice decided she was ready to pursue greater opportunities. “I knew I wanted to stay in the aviation industry,” she said, “so I decided why not go ahead and go to school for my A&P and bring another woman into a male-dominated industry. That kind of excites me a little bit.”

After choosing South Georgia Tech, Rice enrolled in the WIOA program. “I’m very thankful for (WIOA) because it has allowed me to get tools, which is a huge expense,” she said, “and we use them every day in class. It has been a huge weight off my shoulders.”

SGTC WIOA Coordinator Sandhya Muljibhai introduced Rice at the meeting, citing her achievements in the aviation program. “Patricia is a very hard-working aviation student. She has a GPA of over 3.4, she’s taking 16 hours this semester and she’s just passed her FAA general exam.”

Muljibhai continued by praising Rice’s commitment to her fulfilling her obligations in the WIOA program. “If we need anything from her, she does it. She turns things in on time. She’s a model student.”

As for the future, Rice is interested in working in aviation or even a space program. “A lot of people don’t realize that even though this is the aviation program, you can still go work in the space industry, which is really cool,” she said. “They have everything engineered, but they need people to build it. That would be us.”

WIOA is a federally-funded program designed to assist qualified students with training-related costs such as tuition, books, and supplies while enrolled at SGTC. The primary goal of WIOA is to train qualified students to become employed and self-sufficient. The River Valley Regional Commission (RVRC) and the WIOA board make the federal funds available to SGTC.

To learn more about the WIOA program at ����ֱ��, call (229) 931-2172 or visit www.southgatech.edu.