July 17, 2013 - A Desk Job Wasn’t Enough for this UTI-Avondale Graduate

Karrin and Jody Ramos, husband and wife, pose for a photo on their first day of classes at UTI-Avondale.

Karrin Ramos grew up with the influence of two parents who had very successful “desk careers” and always felt pressure to follow suit, leading her to enroll as a Behavioral Psychology major and Criminal Law minor at Montana State University. Yet, a near-death rollover accident on the freeway left Karrin second-guessing her future.

After being ejected through a car’s passenger side window and suffering a shattered tail bone and collar bone, broken shoulder blade, broken pelvis, fractured ankle and stitches, Karrin spent eight months in recovery and physical therapy.

During this time, her close friend, Jody Ramos, supported her through the difficult recovery period. She was just 19 years old at the time, and due to the “wake up call,” she determined that she didn’t want to begin a career sitting behind a desk.

After marrying, Karrin and Jody knew they wanted to own some type of business together, and moved to Phoenix to pursue that dream. Shortly thereafter, they saw a commercial for Universal Technical Institute (UTI). Growing up, Karrin would spend time with her dad as he worked on their family cars, and had developed an interest in how to fix things. Because of this childhood interest, Karrin and Jody immediately set up a tour at the UTI-Avondale campus and enrolled in the core automotive and Ford FACT programs as husband and wife.

Karrin continued her training, being accepted into the highly selective BMW STEP program, receiving five Student of the Class (SOC) awards throughout her time in the program

In a male-dominated industry, Karrin truly thrives on “showing up the boys,” saying that “No boy out there is going to tell me what I can and can’t do. I want to show them that not all girls are fragile or breakable – we can work.”

She plans to work as a technician for BMW once she graduates, and once both she and Jody each gain experience working in a shop for about 5-10 years, they hope to either become instructors for UTI or operate their own independent shop.

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