WyoTech teams with Jessi Combs Foundation to draw women to the trades

Three WyoTech students were recipients of the Jessi Combs Foundation (JCF) scholarship, which empowers young women to pursue careers in trades and other male-dominated fields.

LARAMIE, Wyo., (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – WyoTech, a leading U.S. automotive, diesel, and collision trade school, announced that three of its students—Maggie Daskam, Jade Bovee, and Kaygen Bogle—were recipients of the Jessi Combs Foundation (JCF) scholarship. The scholarship program is one of many ways JCF fulfills its mission to educate, inspire and empower the next generation of trailblazing and stereotype-breaking women.

Maggie Daskam is a member of the Women of WyoTech group, which she describes as very special as it “brings the few females here at school together and helps us get to know each other better.” 

Daskam adds: “From a very young age, my grandpa would always talk to me about the cars he used to have, which made me want a car of my own. So I just started working till I could afford to get a goal car for me. And once I did, it seems I’ve been fixing things on it ever since. Not only did I learn a lot from it right away, but it also helped me realize I liked working on vehicles. Deciding to go to WyoTech was a lot of things for me. I learned lots through my diesel core classes and have been loving my specialty classes—High Performance Power Trains and Chassis Fabrication.” 

“I feel honored receiving the support from a very inspirational and well-known name,” said Jade Bovee, who enrolled in WyoTech in September 2021 and began classes in October. “The Jessi Combs Foundation thrills me and very much inspires me to explore and get my name known the same way Jessi did with ‘the fastest woman on four wheels.'”

According to Bovee, her creativity sparked her interest in the automotive field and to seek out WyoTech to pursue her interests. 

“Especially going into the auto body field, I can show and express my own creative ways with cars. I chose to attend WyoTech because their curriculum stands out from other trade schools and programs for my specialty,” she added.

Kaygen Bogle said she was excited about the recognition and ready to work with women like herself. 

“My family has always worked on cars, and we spend Sunday mornings watching car-building shows like the ones Jessi starred in. WyoTech offers everything I want in a school. This is a hands-on learning environment, and I didn’t want the ‘normal’ college experience. I wanted to be with students like me,” she added.

The trades have seen a modest but steady increase in diversity among men and women in the past few years. According to a 2018 study by the Center for American Progress, 7.3% of people who completed apprenticeship programs were women. According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor, the number is up roughly 4% in two years, with women making up 11.6% of those who completed apprenticeship programs in the 2020 fiscal year.

The Jessi Combs Foundation was founded in 2019 in honor of the late Jessi Combs, a renowned race car driver and WyoTech graduate.

For more information, please visit https://www.wyotech.edu.

To learn more about the Jessi Combs Foundation, please visit www.thejessicombsfoundation.com.

About WyoTech

WyoTech, formerly known as Wyoming Technical Institute, is a for-profit technical college founded in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1966. WyoTech provides training programs that prepare students for careers as technicians in the automotive and diesel industry with nine-month training programs that focus on hands-on experience.

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