Last summer affirmed Daniels’ decision when he interned for a construction company.
Quincy Daniels
Ranken Technical College
Control Systems Technology
Quincy Daniels, senior, said he always knew he wasn’t meant to go the traditional post-high school route. Ever since he was a kid, Daniels said he’d watch his dad, a construction worker, complete woodworking projects at home. Last summer affirmed Daniels’ decision when he interned for a construction company.
“I am more of a hands-on worker than a brain-worker,” Daniels said. “Over the summer I did construction work full-time. I was repairing houses, doing carpentry, drywall and woodworking. That was my first real introduction into that whole field.”
Mandy Melton, Environmental Sustainability and Honors Biology teacher, said she is a huge proponent of trade school. She said there’s a bunch of ways to be successful today that don’t require a college degree.
“Years ago we used to tease kids that were on the internet and on YouTube all of the time,” Melton said. “We would be like, ‘Oh what are you going to be, a YouTube star?’ That’s a field now, to be a YouTuber and an influencer. I think that there’s a whole world of possibilities out there and I think for some kids that know they like to work with their hands [and] that have a general idea of what they want to do, that trade school is the way to go.”
Daniels originally wanted to do construction as his future profession, but ultimately chose to work with electricity. Daniels said the starting wage of being an electrician in control systems is roughly between 50 and 70 thousand dollars. His program at Ranken will begin in the fall and run for 14 months straight, allowing Daniels to begin working in his career at 19 years old.
“Five years from now, my biggest goal is to be in more of a manager position and be making around $100 thousand a year,” Daniels said. “The demand [for the job I want to go into] is so high that I can go anywhere in the country I’d like so I’ll probably move somewhere. I don’t think I want to do this my entire life but I want to take it as far as I can get to set up other opportunities, jobs and have my own businesses.”