According to the National Association of Manufacturers, women make up only 29 percent of the manufacturing workforce in the United States, but that’s not stopping young women from pursuing careers in this field in Northern Kentucky.
Three of these young women, all just in their 20s, are flourishing in their roles at Cincinnati region manufacturing companies including
Safran Landing Systems Kentucky,
Mazak, and
Tri-State Plastics.
Vitoria Rezende, Adisyn Donk, and Hayleigh Harden are paving the way for the next generation of female manufacturers and engineers, but each is taking her own path, showing there are multiple ways to work toward a career in this field.
Vitoria Rezende
In 2022, Vitoria Rezende traveled more than 4,000 miles from her home in Brasília, Brazil, to attend the University of Cincinnati for aerospace engineering.
Now a third-year student at UC, Rezende is in her second co-op with Safran Landing Systems Kentucky and helping lead a global ergonomic project focused on efficiency and aiming to steadily improve the daily life of the workers from a health, safety, and environment point of view.
Rezende has always had a passion for airplanes, rockets, and studying the universe, and her STEM-focused career path started to develop in high school, where she excelled in math and physics. She was drawn to UC because of the school’s co-op program, which was ranked #5 in the nation in 2024 by U.S. News and World Report.
Rezende is supported by family, friends, mentors, and teachers, and hopes she can inspire women, and others in minority groups, to pursue what they are passionate about.
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Vitoria Rezende“I am definitely inspired by all the women I see in the office, or professors in the field,” said Rezende. “Seeing more women in the field is so important for the next generations.”
She especially looks up to Amanda Nguyen, an advocate for survivors of sexual assault and rape who will become the first Vietnamese woman to go to space when she flies on an upcoming Blue Origin launch on the New Shepard Rocket.
“It’s beautiful to see women taking space in the field while being conscious of the gender disparity and actively working to support younger generations,” said Rezende. “You feel seen when such important people finally talk about it, and still make it to the top nonetheless.”
Adisyn Donk
Twenty-one-year-old Adisyn Donk is a manufacturing engineer co-op at Mazak, working with her colleagues to solve issues relating to Mazak’s floor operations. Despite her young age, she is already advocating for careers in the trades, especially through her community service initiative platform while competing for Miss Kentucky.
She participated in her second pageant in 2024 with the platform “Who is Made for the Trades? Any Face from Any Place.” It focused on the benefits of attending community college and not overlooking the trades, because this path can help young women find the right career or lead to further education at another university.
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Adisyn Donk“I truly realized how much of an impact I could have on other girls by talking about my career and pathway in manufacturing,” said Donk. “Going into the trades can lead to so many opportunities for young adults.”
Donk attended Gateway Community and Technical College where she earned associate degrees in welding technology, science and business. She is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in mechanical and manufacturing engineering technology at Northern Kentucky University and hopes to work full time in Mazak’s engineering department after graduation.
“If I wouldn’t have gone to school for welding, I wouldn’t have discovered Mazak or the job I love,” said Donk. “Going to community college should not be embarrassing. And from there, you can find what you are really passionate about.”
Hayleigh Harden
Hayleigh Harden, 27, started working at Tri-State Plastics, a woman-owned manufacturing company in
Covington, in 2021 with no prior manufacturing experience. Now, she performs nearly every aspect of the job, even creating “how-to” guides for operating machinery.
To get to where she is now, Harden has put in a lot of effort outside normal business hours, taking machine manuals home with her to study at night. She has so many notebooks full of information at home, she said she needs to create a filing system for all of them.
“I like to learn and that’s why I love it here,” said Harden. “There is always something to learn and no room for boredom. I realized I loved it, and they realized I would work hard and put real effort into it.”
Harden encourages everyone, especially young girls, to consider manufacturing, and she is currently working toward her associate’s degree in mechanical engineering at Cincinnati State.
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Hayleigh Harden“I’ve come really far in three years and I’m excited to start learning more of the technical background of this work, beyond just the experience,” said Harden. “I think it will make me more comfortable and confident.”
Into the future, it will be important for companies and education institutions to prepare younger generations with the manufacturing skills they need to replace retiring workers from the baby boomer generation.
In September 2024, there were 481,000 manufacturing job openings in the United States, according to the National Association of Manufacturers. To fill these openings, companies will need to continue to recruit new workers, including young women.
“Over the past 30 years, it has been inspiring to see more women employed at manufacturing companies, including my own daughter,” said Tri-State Plastics President Lisa Schneider. “I hope schools will continue encouraging young women to seek careers in this field.”
NaviGo College & Career Prep Services is one local organization working diligently with businesses and schools to expose students to different industry sectors, and careers within these sectors, so students can make more informed decisions after high school and businesses can develop robust talent pipelines within the schools.
For more information on connecting with local businesses or schools, contact Lorraine O’Moore, NaviGo/Learning Grove NKY College & Career Connector, at
[email protected] or 513-399-1967.