2025 Graduation at Madison College: Leading the Way
Patrice Brown, a native of Mississippi, wants to make a difference in the number of women working in auto repair and refinishing.
By Jonathan Gramling
Patrice Brown — who received her second associate’s degree from Madison College in May — is a working class hero in way, seeking to make an impact on the collision repair and refinishing industry.
Brown moved to Madison from Mississippi in 20i5 seeking job opportunities, opportunities that weren’t there for a Black woman with a high school diploma.
Brown arrived in Madison with a five-year-old son and no driver’s license. Her options were limited.
“I wasn’t driving, so I rather would take the bus and get to work,” Brown said. “The first job I got was Burger King. I worked for them for a year. I had to get my son in school, so I had to work around my schedule. And then I worked for Walmart for five years.”
In 2019, Brown decided to take the plunge and go to Madison College to earn an associates degree in auto mechanics.
“When I got my auto mechanic degree, it opened a lot of opportunities,” Brown said. “But I didn’t have by Jonathan Gramling
a driver’s license. I have a phobia about driving because I had an accident. It didn’t do much for me. But I went to Auto Zone where I could be around the parts and hear other people’s problems about their cars, so that when I did decide to get into the field and get my license, I could know what’s going on. ‘Oh yeah, I heard about this problem before. I can fix it for you.’ But I mainly want to work in the body shops because I know where I got to go to fix it. I would rather work in a body shop where I could just know what accident happened, know what I have to do or figure it out.”
And so while still working at Auto Zone and keeping her son on the straight and narrow, Brown decided to go back to Madison College for a degree in refinishing and repair. She had to juggle a lot while earning that degree.
“My son is 15-years-old now,” Brown said. “He goes to East High School. I just stayed focused. That was the main thing. I stayed focused, tried to do my job well. I also made sure that my son was doing his homework and I’m doing my homework. Sometimes we would be sitting at the table doing homework together. And so I just stayed focused and kept my eye on the goal, kept my head down and made sure that I got everything done. And I also made sure that my son was straight. Now that I am out of school, it’s a little easier. I don’t have to worry about school and can remain more focused on my son and then I had my job.”
Brown got a lot of hands-on experience.
“I learned painting, fixing the dent,” Brown said. “I learned to make a mold out of fiberglass. I worked on a car that had a bad accident, so we could take the old pieces out and weld in the new pieces. I also painted that. We worked with the frame machine, which made it as straight as it could get and then we finished it by hand, straightened it out by hand.”
The auto mechanic and auto repair field is still primarily a man’s field. And before the accident in Mississippi, Brown felt helpless and had top accept whatever terms and costs were dictated to her.
“Once I get my driver’s license, there are plenty of opportunities for me to go to different body shops to show them that I can do the work,” Brown said. “I have two years experience. It might be a little rusty, but it’s not going to take me long to get back to where I was. It’s like riding a bike. The teachers gave us a lot of hands-on experience. I’m good with hands-on. There were a lot of opportunities for me to use my hands. There were different things that I know I won’t have to go to no one like some guys try to get over you with prices with me being a lady. And I am not in the field or know what they are doing. I really went to school because I like cars. I also could do my own work where I don’t have to pay an arm and a leg when there isn’t that much time that they are putting into it.”
Brown feels that it is important for women to get into the field.
“Being a woman, I will be able to provide a different kind of service to women,” Brown said. “Some women might not feel comfortable going to a man. I would like for them to come to me and that would give me more customers and more experience with females. I would give them opportunities if they come to me and ask me what made me decide to go into the field. I could tell them the different things in how they could get into the field and have at least a little more women now as it relates to the men. The number of women is real low. Is probably 10 percent women. There aren’t that many women out there working on cars. So I think that would be a good thing to do, just to bring more women into the field.”
Some day, Brown dreams of opening her own body shop. And she would be determined to give women a fair deal.
“I would give women honest estimates,” Brown said. “That’s why I went into it, so I could do my own work and give them a really low price. ‘I can do this for you at this price.’ And it shouldn’t take me too long. If you take it to the shop, it costs more. I’m not trying to cheat myself. But I know some people really can’t afford the prices. But I’’m not going to cheat myself. I’m going to give them a price that we both can work with. This will give me a good clientele also.”
And what will Brown do before opening her own shop? Go back to Madison College for a degree in business of course.