19-Year-Old Finds Career Opportunity Through Hudson Valley Community College

July 5, 2022—Despite the industry-wide labor shortage, young people like Mya Julius are still motivated to carve out their careers in collision repair. 

According to WNYT News 13, 19-year-old Julius is enrolled in the Hudson Valley Community College Automotive Technical Services-Autobody Repair associate degree program. The school is in Troy, New York. 

Julius, who grew up in Cambridge, has loved working on cars since she was young thanks to the influence of her grandfather. 

“I spent a lot of time with my grandfather growing up,” Julius said to WNYT. “He had a lot of older cars and tractors and he’d always talk about fixing them up and all of the cars that he had when he was growing up. I loved it. I loved the idea of that.”

The Hudson Valley Community College program covers many different components of collision repair, from detailing to structural to non-structural repair and more. 

Although the automotive aftermarket is mostly male-dominated, Julius doesn’t necessarily give much thought to gender in the field. 

“I never really had a problem with it. I never really looked at it as an obstacle.” Julius said. 

Julius is still a student, but she is already working in the industry. Hudson Valley Community College is hopeful that more young people like Julius will follow suit and explore repair-oriented opportunities.