 Hey Alabama 4-H, my name is Christy Miller, one of your 2020-2021 Alabama 4-H state ambassadors from Shelby County. Today I have with me Mr. Pat Murphy, the machine shop teacher at Central Alabama Community College. Mr. Pat, how are you doing this morning? Doing great, how are you? I'm doing well, thank you for asking. So today Mr. Pat is going to tell us about what it's like to be a machine shop teacher as well as what the machinist industry is like. So my first question is what exactly does a machinist do? So if a student goes through your program, what are some things they can expect to learn? Well basically what to start it off, that's a good question, what do machinists do? A lot of people think when they hear machinists they really think mechanic and that's really not what we do. Basically what we do is when I'm recruiting students or talking to students, what I tell them is anything you can feel or touch or buy, a machinist had something to do with it being made. The shirt that you're wearing, we don't actually make shirts, but we build the equipment that would make the shirt. So we make machinery, we make replacement parts machinery, and the way we make them is we use equipment precision machines, I was really close to tolerance and in our program we teach these students how to run the equipment to make the parts, to make the machines. Awesome. I had not thought about it in the perspective of even with like the clothes that you wear, that's really interesting. So when you started off, did you know that you wanted to do something with machining? Actually, my career, I started off going to Jackson State University, I was actually going into education, I wanted to be a school teacher and a football coach. I've taken some classes, it's a short story, taking some classes here at CAC in the summertime as a transient student. My cousin was taking the machine shop program here on campus, and I would just started stopping by and talking with him. And the next thing I noticed, I was here all day long, I really got, it was just so fascinating to me to watch him make a piece, take a piece of material, piece of steel and turn it into something in it. So I just kind of got mesmerized by it. And the next thing I knew, I was taking the course, I decided to take this instead of continuing on in education. So then that was, so the machine wasn't actually your original major, that's interesting. No, absolutely, it was the furthest thing, I didn't even know what a machinist was at the time, so yeah. So, did you begin your career as an instructor or did you actually go into the industry beforehand? I actually started off in the industry, I worked 26 years in the industry, so the education side of the machining is actually something new to me. I've only been teaching for six years, formally teaching in an education atmosphere. I've done a lot of teaching in the industry, teaching people how to do the same things that I'm teaching them how to do now, but just not in an educational scenario. So, excuse me, if you had to describe a day on your job, what's a day like in your job? A day on my job. Well, it's just like any job, I guess day to day it can be different, but a basic day of my job is I have students coming in, trying to learn something to help them better their livelihood. So, it's an easy job because most students that come to my program, they're learning something that they know they're going to have to have in order to make money. It's kind of, it's a little bit different than the academic side of things because they're learning something to reach a goal to get a degree. My students are learning something that they know they're going to have to lean back on, go back to in order to get that raised, to get that job. So it's a really good day every day because you see students get that little, I call them nuggets. They get those little nuggets and you see the light come on and they understand and you know they've grasped that concept. I have a great job. I have the best job in the state of Alabama, in my opinion, because I see these kids come in and they're learning and they're learning and they're learning and they're getting, and the more they learn, the more interested they get in what they're doing. So, it's normal day is just kids coming in. We started talking about what our plan is for the day just like you would in a job. And then they go out and get on their projects or we go in the classroom and we learn some theory, theory side of the class. And then we take that theory that we learned in the class and we put it to work out into the shop. So we try to keep all the information relevant to not just useless information, I call it. So that's a typical day. So what would be your favorite part of your job? Oh, wow, that's a hope. That may be a tough one right there. I guess one of the favorite parts of my job would be when a student gets to a certain point in the program to where we get an opportunity to talk to industry or they actually get an opportunity to go make some money. To actually get out and most of my students have jobs before they graduate. A lot of my students have jobs after their first semester. So the really good thing is to see that they, what they're doing, they're getting some reward from it. Actually getting a job offer or getting multiple job offers and having to come and sit and talk to me about what should I do. And watching their decision making processes on, well, is it the money or is it the benefits? Is it the future opportunities? That would be my favorite part of teaching. So I guess to hear, what is the funniest thing that has happened in your classroom or at your shop? That may be the toughest question you've asked because we have a lot of things going on in my class that it's going to be hard to put one finger on one thing. We have so many, you know, our guys, the atmosphere that we produce in our shop is we try to keep it on a professional level and educational level. We also want the kids to enjoy being here. So, you know, I guess one funny thing, it wasn't funny when it happened, but afterwards it was funny when we realized the student wasn't hurt. We had a student come in one time and we used this stuff to put on our parts to what we can do. It's called layout dye. And it's just that it's red dye. And there's a way you have to do it because once it gets on you, it doesn't come off. I mean, you just have to wear it off. And we caution the students about how they use it. We caution wearing safety glasses, you know, but some people, you know, the rules, you have rules, but not everybody abides by the rules. This particular student come into class one day and he picked a jar. It comes in a jar and he picks the jar up by the top and someone had not screwed the top on all the way. So when he picks it up, he picks it up about chest high. It comes undone. It falls and hits the table. And when it does, it literally just explodes up all over his face, all over his shirt. And of course, I'm panicking because he doesn't have his safety glasses on because he's at the layout station, which, you know, and I'm running over to him. And I'm the first thing I'm doing I'm making sure he's okay and he's wiping his eyes and he's wiping his face. I'm telling you, quit wiping, quit wiping. You're just, you're just making it worse. Luckily, he didn't, nothing got in his in his eyes or but it was completely all over him. Once I realized he was okay. Then of course we got you know, he has to go talk to we're at this point I'm at so-called high school teaching the program we had a program going down there. So he has to go to the principal's office he has to go up front as go from everybody's got all his whole face is just read the shirts read his. So that was a pretty that was pretty much what we realized that he was okay. Right. That is funny. So if you had to give a youth some advice that was interesting and being a machine is what would you tell them. Well, you know, it's the same advice that I give all my students. A lot of people come into the machine shop and there's a lot of math involved. A lot of kids look at it and the math intimidates them. They shouldn't let it intimidate them. They shouldn't do something like this. There's so many avenues that split off just the topic machinist. A lot of jobs. Well, you can get a lot of different jobs other than just being a machinist running a machine on making parts with the machinist background on Honda Honda Mercedes Benz Airbus. We have Remington firearms and in Huntsville. We have a company that's coming to visit with us tomorrow. They manufacture pistols and rifles and Troy. There's so many venues that you can go into the medical field. So to think of just being a machinist kind of really limits what you can do with this with this degree. They're looking, people are looking for technically minded people who mechanically inclined. Completing this course proves that you are that person. A lot of companies want to train you to do things the way they want it done and they're just looking for that skill set. They're looking for someone that's mechanically inclined that's put forth an effort to better themselves. So they're looking for that person that's willing to hang in with the company. So that would be the advice I would give them. Don't don't think about it just as machining parts but setting yourself up to be successful in a lot of different areas. Well, excuse me to kind of spin off that question as well. What advice would you give the youth that was interested in being a machine shop teacher so being the one that actually gets to educate? Well, like I said earlier, it's the best job I've ever had. It's the best job in the state of Alabama to me. It's a great opportunity in order to teach there are some requirements. You have to have your associates degree. You have to have a number of years experience in the field in order to qualify to be a teacher. So just finishing the program, you want to finish a program, you want to get some experience under your belt to be a teacher because you want to be able to teach the students all that you can teach them so that they are, the more experience you can expose them students to, the more valuable they are to industries. And the more valuable they are to industry, the more the industry is going to come to your location to get their help. So that's what advice I would give a student is take a program, learn all you can learn, get you some experience in multiple areas of the machining aspect of the machining world and then come back and be that guy that wants to see other people succeed and change their way of life, their quality of life. That would be what I would say. That's really good advice. When can a student start your program? A student can start my program as a sophomore in high school. We have what's called dual enrollment funds and it's grant money and the great thing about it is as a sophomore, they can come into our program, it's completely paid by the state that you do have to qualify. You have to have a certain GPA, but it's completely paid for. There's no tuition cost, there's no book cost, it's just like going to public education, you know, you just go to school, the books will be given to you and that saves thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for your parents. You can also take the academic classes that are part of our program as you're taking your technical classes. So it's possible, it's very possible to be almost completely your associates degree when you graduate high school. The goal is for a student to graduate high school and then the next week come here and graduate from CAC. So they have their two year degree when they graduate high school. Wow. Yeah. That is an amazing opportunity. Right. And especially if it costs, if it's zero cost to mom and dad, you know, that beats being in debt, you know, $120,000 at a university and hopes that you can get a job. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I think that about wraps up my questions. Do you have anything else that you would add to just advice about being a machinist? Well, you know, here's a little advice that I was given my dad worked 35 years in a cotton mill. And his advice is probably some of the best advice I've ever been given. So I'll pass it along. It doesn't really matter what you're doing as long as you try to be the best at what you're doing. Nobody's nobody's looking for middle of the road or mediocre. Nobody nobody comes to me looking for employees asking for just that average guy. They're all looking for someone that's really good at what they do and passionate about what they do. So if it's machining, welding, nursing, whatever your major is or whatever your your job is, if you're good at what you do, you always have a you always have a job and you always have an opportunity to enhance your life. So that'd be my advice. Just be good at what you do. That's awesome. And it's a lot like what 4-H really pushes for you. You know, our motto is make the best better. So that really that's a lot like that for what youth get prepared for in 4-H. But also with role models like you as our educators, that's really helping get youth to where they need to be for their future careers and forever life takes them. But Mr. Pat, thank you so much for your time. You're welcome. Thank you for asking me to be a part of it.