When Bianca Johnson first heard about MiraCosta College's Technology Career Institute, pursuing a career in engineering was unimaginable.

She stated, "The word engineering alone made me feel like I wasn’t smart enough. I was afraid to try because I thought I’d inevitably fail. As soon as it was mentioned, I was like, ‘Oh no, I can’t do that.’”

Post military, Bianca sought a career change after her experiences in the logistics and veterinary fields. She knew she wanted to grow in a profession that was hands-on, but she wasn’t sure what fields best suited her skill sets and interests.

Her search led her to reconnect with Russell Levy, owner of Veterans Transition Support and OSHA instructor for MiraCosta Technology Career Institute, who guided her towards the institute's certification programs due to other veteran’s successes.

It was on a morning tour that Bianca first learned about MiraCosta TCI’s Engineering Technician Program.

After seeing the students engaged in projects like the “Mouse Maze,” where they’re tasked with creating an autonomous vehicle that navigates through a complex wooden obstacle, Bianca decided it was worth asking some more questions.

She spoke with the students of cohort 28, led by Professor Kate MacArevey-Colello, and thought that she could potentially enjoy something like that. From its stimulating subject matter, the opportunity to her your mind and her hands, plus some much-needed socialization and an exceptionally adept female instructor, Bianca still remembers how she felt back then.

There was a spark.

After the tour, it was time to think. Although the feedback from the students and instructor were positive, and the opportunity was intriguing, Bianca lacked the background and still worried about having no knowledge of the field. Despite this initial apprehension, she decided to take the encouraging advice of her husband, who is also a veteran and later became a student in the Biomedical Equipment Technician course.

Bianca decided to give it a shot, and whether she excelled or not, she thought she owed it to herself to at least try.

Fortunately, Bianca’s initial apprehension gave way to enthusiasm as she quickly found herself immersed in a structured environment that matched her learning style. The Engineering Technician Program, a 600-hour accelerated course that prepares students to immediately enter the workforce after completion, provided Bianca with a space where trial and error was a key part of learning.

As Bianca mentioned, “We were going to mess up and fail, but Kate wasn't going to let us drown. She’d let us know that it’s okay to not get everything right. We’re all learning at different paces, and we just need to try.”

Over time, Bianca found herself more and more captivated with the subject matter at hand. She also realized that while she lacked the academic background of many engineers, her experience provided her with some advantages that she could lean on. Her military background in electronics maintenance rendered itself useful in moments of

successfully assisting classmates with troubleshooting laboratory equipment. The old knowledge, mixed with the new, and allowed her to excel in a way she didn’t expect.

Week after week, the program opened her eyes to numerous possibilities. It gave her answers to questions she’s always had and it allowed her to process how things start off as an idea and become something useful. She particularly enjoyed the robotics aspects and discovered a fascination with learning how every single piece moves to

accomplish different tasks. There’s limitless potential here.

Her capstone project, an infrared automated tunnel enticement rat trap, coined "IRATE” in honor of the way she felt while tackling the difficult project, was the perfect encapsulation of her engineering journey.

Shared Bianca, “I thought my project was too simple while I was putting it together, but then I realized how confusing it was to someone on the outside. I became a little nerd and I didn’t even know it. Sometimes my husband would stare at me and say he had no idea what I was talking about because I’d say something like programmable logic controller or variable frequency drive. I forget I wasn’t talking to my classmate or the instructor.”

Today, Bianca is exploring various career paths within the industry. She’s unsure if she’d like to pursue a degree in electrical or mechanical engineering at UC Riverside but for now she’d like to learn whatever she can, whether it be in marine, biomedical, or aerospace engineering.

Through MiraCosta College's Technology Career Institute, Bianca has not only found a new career path, but also discovered capabilities she never knew she had, proving that it's never too late to change