Under the hood and ahead of the curve

McKayla Kushner was just a middle-schooler when she caught a glimpse of her future. She and her classmates toured an auto body shop where a group of girls were working on motorcycles. They were part of an early college program.

“They let us sit on the end of a motorcycle and rev it. Then they told us that they had built them by hand, and I think that’s when it really clicked that that was something that I could do,” Kushner recalls.

The Andrews High graduate plans to major in Business Administration at Salem College. After that, she wants to open her own auto shop. She doesn’t yet know how to drive a car, but she’s pretty confident about how to fix one. Last summer, she completed a paid internship with the Guilford County Schools Transportation Department, where she learned how to work on buses. The experience reinforced that this is what she wanted to do.

“I’ve always wanted to know how things work. I like being able to put things together, and I like working with my hands,” she says.

It just felt right

Kushner moved to High Point at the end of her eighth-grade year. At Welborn Middle, she heard about the auto shop. Intrigued, she started asking about it.

The former theater kid who thought she might be an actress never forgot about the girls with the motorcycles. She took her first automotive course her sophomore year at Andrews.

“It just felt right. And just seeing how different everything is, while also realizing that I know how to do something that a lot of people do not know how to do,” she says.

That year, much of her studies were focused on safety and regulations.

“We didn’t touch cars at first, really,” she says. "We would sit around the equipment and the teacher would show us how things worked. That was great for me because I came in as a complete beginner.”

Kushner values the hands-on training she acquired through her summer internship with the GCS transportation department.

“I shadowed a skilled technician and I fixed the buses that the kids ride to school every day,” she says proudly. “It was a lot less sheltered because there was no sitting in a classroom learning how to do something. You were right there and something was wrong and you had to fix it.”

That skilled technician—Lee Greeson—became her mentor and advocate. Greeson, a mechanic in the GCS transportation department, has been with the district 35 years. He recalls working with one other female mechanic in the early 2000s. Kushner was one of three interns in his department last summer, as well as the only female mechanic overall. He didn’t know what to expect before meeting her, but she made a strong impression on her very first day. It was hot and humid, recalls Greeson.

“We were down in the lower lot getting a part from a salvage bus to put into another bus that we had up in the air. And without being asked, she got the tools and crawled up under there with us. Right then, I knew it was going to be different,” he says.

And by the end of the summer, those in the department didn’t want her to leave. They respected her work ethic, proficiency and professionalism.

“She was spot on all the time,” Greeson says. “The shop is hot in the summer, but she was in the midst of it. She’s not afraid to get dirty or hot. She never asked off or made any excuses. She’s not afraid to meet challenges.”

“He was very very patient with me. He taught me a lot,” Kushner says. “If I had a question or if I didn’t know what was happening, he would never judge me. I gained a lot of knowledge within the short summer.”

Greeson says it would be impossible to compare her to other interns. He believes she is one of a kind.

“It gave me renewed hope for our youth,” he says. “It was a special time for me. I’ll never forget it.”

Don’t hold back

Kushner believes it’s important for young girls to know that if they want to do something—regardless of the industry—they should go for it. Being a female aspiring to work in a male-dominated industry can be intimidating. Kushner, who describes herself as “girlie,” says some assumed that she would discover that working on cars wasn’t for her.

“A lot of people thought, ‘You’re not gonna like this. You’re gonna get dirty and you’re gonna hate it. You have to lift heavy things,” she says.

But the longer she stuck with it, the more they realized how serious she was.

“They’re very supportive of me, especially my mom. They think it’s cool that I’m trying to do what I’m doing,” she says. “I have family members who work in the trades, so they think it’s awesome and they try to help me in any way that they can,” she says.

Sometimes she thinks about those high school girls working on motorcycles.

“They kind of, really started it all for me, honestly,” she says. “I don’t think I ever would have gotten into it if there had been only men in that shop.”

She earned her Automotive Service Excellence certifications before graduating from Andrews, which means she is certified as a mechanic.

When she opens her own shop, she wants to give back to the community by offering classes to teach basic skills like how to change a flat tire or restart a dead battery.

"It’s going to make a great career because it’s not something that can be replaced by things like AI,” she says. “I think that this is what I’m meant to do, It’s not a big, flashy career, but I think it’s right for me.”

Greeson says Kushner learns quickly and is the type of person that people enjoy working with.

“McKayla can do whatever she wants to do. If she continues to make good choices, it will be a very rewarding career and rewarding life,” he says.

Kushner is grateful for the opportunities that have been provided for her.