| Allison Jones-Young stands at the helm of an impressive 30-year career in the nuclear industry. As she celebrates a milestone of service in her field, Young has picked up an extensive list of life lessons and successes.
Young has worked for Duke Energy for three decades holding various positions at the McQuire, Catawba and Oconee Nuclear sites. She now serves as lead engineer in nuclear development, where her job is to monitor the site according to regulations set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In the rigorous field of nuclear engineering, Young shared that she is regularly exposed to highly secure and, at times, highly stressful environments—which makes the length of her career even more notable.
“You are trained on where you need to go, how long you stay and the consequences if you stay too long,” she said.
But safety concerns aside, the significant lesson that propelled her career came when she discovered the value of the education she received from North Carolina A&T State University. “I learned that one pretty early on, she said.”
Undeterred by others, her strategy for building a sustainable career in the nuclear industry was to infuse the confidence she gained from her alma mater into every fragment of her work.
“You have to say, I am going to do what I know and what I’ve been trained to do,” Young affirmed.
Before graduating in 1981 with a degree in mechanical engineering, she was a typical college student who used the power of perseverance to her advantage she recalled. She learned about North Carolina A&T from a high-school guidance counselor and experienced her first taste of Aggieland during a pre-engineering summer program.
Although she was unsure about attending A&T or majoring in engineering at first, Young fought to earn her spot in the demanding program by attending summer classes to meet the school’s enrollment requirements.
Young went on to earn a master’s degree in business administration from Queens College and is a member of the Business Women’s Network.
In her spare time she mentors girls in engineering through presentations and school visits in the Charlotte Mecklenburg County area. With retirement on the horizon Young, anticipates spending more time volunteering in the school system.
“It really does not matter where you start,” she said.
“I am from one of the poorest counties in North Carolina. People think that if you are from a poor area you cannot learn, progress or succeed. I am a prime example of why that logic is flawed,” she explained.
By: Courtney J. Jackson
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