Production Lead Ali Tucker Completes Business Degree Program
Composites Production Lead Alexandra (Ali) Tucker received an exciting, long-awaited gift during the holiday season: an Associate of Business degree from Western Nevada College!
Composites Production Lead Alexandra (Ali) Tucker received an exciting, long-awaited gift during the holiday season: an Associate of Business degree from Western Nevada College!
When Ali graduated from WNC in 2018 with an Associate of Arts degree, she had no idea that she would someday end up working in manufacturing. However, professional development has always been important to her. After completing WNC’s Manufacturing Technician 1 (MT-1) certification program in spring of 2021, the experience helped her see not only that she wanted to gain more training for a career beyond the production floor, but also that it was possible to complete school while working full time.
With the support of her husband, who also is currently in college, working on a bachelor’s degree and planning to attend graduate school, she enrolled in WNC’s online associate degree program in business in summer 2021. While maintaining her full-time work schedule — including becoming a Production Lead in July 2022 — Ali also was working at night and on weekends to complete three classes per semester, enabling her to finish in a year and a half. It helped to have her husband working on his own classes alongside her, she says.
“He was taking eight classes a semester, so my measly three was nothing!” she says. “He’s very competitive when it comes to grades, so it motivated me to get better grades, and I was not going to lose to him!”
Her studies included aspects of accounting as well as marketing — including a 50-page paper and major presentation, for which Brand Experience team members Danielle Costella and Ellie Keene, as well as Senior Marketing Analyst Jeremy Brahm, offered helpful insights. Additionally, her economics studies helped her see her work as a lead in a new light as well. “It was very interesting to see a different side of Click Bond,” she says. “On the production floor, you’re putting part A and part B together, and you don’t necessarily get to see what’s ‘behind the curtain,’ so to speak.”
As if her two associate degrees weren’t enough, Ali actually had enough credits to receive another degree this winter — an Associate of General Studies.
Ali encourages anyone who’s considering furthering their education to take small steps. “I would just say, start off with one class. Just take one step forward. If that one class is doable, then maybe add another. Start small, and see what you can do.”
Congratulations, Ali!