College Jump-Starts Woman’s Auto Repair Career

Cars have changed drastically since the advent of computers, and so have the mechanics who work on them.

First of all, don’t call them mechanics, or grease monkeys, for that matter. They are technicians. And if there’s an urge to stereotype them as the guys who didn’t quite make it to Advanced Placement European history and were relegated to shop classes in high school, remember the computer aspect. These people are smart.

Take Gina Sandez of Orange. The 22-year-old recently graduated from the Toyota T-10 Educational Network program at Cypress College, the first woman to do so in its 11-year existence.

The program teaches students how to work on cars made by the Japanese manufacturer. In the last two years she has taken eight courses required to graduate and work at a Toyota dealership. And she is one class away from receiving her associate’s degree in the general mechanic program at the college.

Becoming an automotive technician wasn’t a lifelong dream for Sandez, but she has always liked cars, especially vintage ones, and has been around them all of her life. Her father was a mechanic for 30 years in the Air Force and later as a civilian.

“I just kind of fell into it,” she said. “It’s not hard.”

At first, Sandez heard comments like, “You don’t look like the type of person that would do this. You’re no butch,” and “Are you gay?”

A quick look at Sandez and it’s obvious she likes to wear jewelry and is fond of manicures. When working, she says she is careful to protect her hands with gloves. But show her a transmission problem on a car and she goes into trouble-shooting mode.

“I think I’m very feminine, but I work on cars,” Sandez said.

Sandez said her boyfriend, a mechanic who works for Lexus in Tustin, is her main source of support.

“He’s always boosting me up,” she said. “Sometimes, I get so frustrated I come home and want to cry because people try to discourage me. He gives me his 100% support. He’s the one person I could say never gave me one word of discouragement.”

Instructor Marty Orozco has been in the business about 18 years and knows the occupation is dominated by men but believes there is room for change, especially when women like Sandez come into the field.

The technician’s job is just short of being an electrical engineer, he said. In one car, there may be as many as six computers, plus timing belts, sensors, emission-related components, carburetors, etc.

“She was always up to the challenge,” Orozco said. “With her education, she has the tools necessary to do what’s needed in this field.”

When she worked in the service department at the Toyota dealership in Garden Grove, her male co-workers often wondered aloud how long she would last there and told her they had never worked with a female before.

But Sandez stuck it out for a year, and on the same day she graduated from the Toyota program, she quit.

This week was her first week working at a Nissan dealership in Tustin. Originally hired as a technician, she was later offered more pay to work inside one of the dealership offices.

One day, Sandez said she will transfer to UCLA and get her bachelor’s degree in automotive management, which, until recently, she didn’t even know existed. Her dreams include owning a shop with all-women technicians.

Ana Beatriz Cholo can be reached at (714) 966-5890.