Arkansas Woman Makes History

Entergy employee zaps stereotypes as first female line worker

At first glance, Sara Russell-Lingo seems an unlikely candidate to make history as the first female line worker in Entergy Arkansas’s history. The 25-year-old Central Arkansas native lacked both direction and technical ability coming out of high school.

“I didn’t even know how to change a tire when I came into this,” she said. “I worked at Remington Arms as a machine operator for a while and I ran machines, so that helped me a little bit with my tools and everything. I went in there and I passed my technician test, which surprised me. But, really, as far as being good with mechanical stuff, I sucked at it.”

Factory work was just one of the jobs the native of South Bend, Arkansas, drifted into. By the time her grandfather pointed out Entergy Arkansas’s line worker program, she was eager for a change.

“I was in search of a career after working those dead-end jobs,” she said. “I was getting depressed because I had put in for so many things; I even put in for an airline stewardess. Crazy.

“My grandfather saw something about the H-VOLT Academy and knew it would be a great career for me to get into. He put me onto it at Pulaski Technical College.”

The training program, High Voltage Lineman Training or H-VOLT Academy, is a certified power line worker training program designed to provide quality education along with real-world, hands-on instruction. Russell-Lingo wasn’t put off by the gender reference in the name of the course; she already knew she was getting into a male-dominated field.

“I have been the only woman all the way through school and at Entergy [Linemen's] Boot Camp,” she said. “Some guys supported me. Some of them gave me a hard time but I didn’t let that get to me. I still gave it all I had. Nobody’s born knowing how to do this job. You’ve got to learn somewhere, and I would say I’m doing pretty well.”

Nonetheless, Russell-Lingo admitted in the early stages of her training, she felt the need to over-perform just to prove she belonged.

“I had an issue when I first went into this, because I felt like I had to prove myself physically,” she said. “I was focused on the physical instead of the mental and it made me fall behind, because I was so focused on preparing my body that the mental side didn’t matter to me.”

“My supervisor visited my boot camp in Mississippi and they told him I was outstanding out in the field doing the physical activity, but the mental I wasn’t doing so good. So, I had to stop focusing on proving myself physically and getting more involved in the mental aspect of it. In this line of work, you can have no mistakes.”

Once she finished boot camp, Russell-Lingo began her five-year apprenticeship on the job with Entergy Arkansas. In that role, she shadows an experienced lineman as well as attends class.

“Pretty much it’s like I’m in college right now,” she said. “Some weeks we work 16 hours, seven days a week. Sometimes we work 10 hours a day, four days a week. It’s not regular hours so it’s never going to be the same. That’s

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KOLBE HERRON

AGE: 17 EDUCATION: Senior, Mountain Home High School SNAPSHOT: Through MHHS’s career education program, Herron discovered his career path in welding and took steps to gain skills while still in high school, shortening his training time after graduation.

WHAT’S A SKILL THAT YOU LEARNED DURING HIGH SCHOOL THAT WILL SERVE AS A CAREER GOING FORWARD? Welding. I just like the aspect of it because I’ve always been around it. I like all the cool art you can do with it and everything you can build. I plan on continuing a year after school at the local technical center and getting certified and going out and doing some welding on the road.

HOW HAVE THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS THERE HELPED PREPARE YOU FOR A SKILLED CAREER? The ag teachers and other instructors do a good job of teaching kids some basic construction and work skills and things like that. Every now and then we get some people to pop in, like a local business here, TI Trailers, pops into our welding class at least once or twice a year and sees some people they would like to hire in the future.

As far as welding specifically, there’s a lot of different types of welding and a lot of different tools you need to learn how to use and learn all the safety stuff. It was a little difficult figuring all that out at first, but once you do it safely and figure out what gases to use and what rods to use on what kinds of metal, after that it’s not too bad.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU HAVE FOR ANY HIGH SCHOOLER AS FAR AS CHECKING OUT A SKILLED CAREER? I would tell them to try to join into a shop class or an ag program and just learn some little things and figure out what they would like to do. If nothing else, it’ll teach you some things you need to know when you get older down the road, just basic things like how to read a tape measure or how to lay something out or build something so you don’t have to pay someone else to do it.

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part of the sacrifice you’ve got to make for a good career and lifestyle.”

Russell-Lingo said the secret to surviving in an almost all-male industry, and a dangerous one at that, is to work hard and believe in one’s abilities. She said with each new task she learns, her confidence grows.

“When you go out and you have a hard time, that’s a challenge right there to complete,” she said. “Once you do, you feel like you’re on top of the world. That’s what it does to my confidence; at first, I had a little self-doubt. Once I started completing tasks it really helped my confidence. It’s like, ‘If I’ve done it once, I can do it again.’”

Determination and the will to get better are things she would recommend to anyone considering a skilled career, particularly as a lineworker and especially for women.

“Just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean you’re weak,” she said. “Sometimes people look at my little petite self and they judge me. But just because I’m little and I’m a woman doesn’t mean I’m weak. And when I say weak, I don’t mean just physically, I also mean mentally. Nothing in life comes easy; if you want it, you have to give it all you’ve got.”

Following her apprenticeship, Russell-Lingo will carry the title of journeyman and her career choices will broaden considerably. She said she’d ultimately like to take additional schooling that will certify her to work under special conditions — namely, being lowered from a helicopter to work on hard-to-reach power lines.

She said the best part of her job is knowing how important it is to the lives of customers.

“Electricity keeps people alive,” she said. “There’s people on life support right now in hospitals and they’re relying on me to keep them alive. When you go out and you’re working these lines, you’re helping not only an individual, you’re helping whole communities.

“Electricity runs the world, so when you’re out there sacrificing, you’re doing it for a good purpose. You’re keeping people alive.”

WESLEY BAILEY

AGE: 21 EDUCATION: Parkview High School; H-VOLT Academy at UA Pulaski Tech PROFESSION: Apprentice line worker, Entergy Arkansas SNAPSHOT: As an Entergy Arkansas apprentice, Bailey will combine on-thejob and classroom work as he learns the ropes of being a lineman.

GROWING UP, DID YOU HAVE ANY FAMILY MEMBERS IN THE TRADES? HOW DID YOU DECIDE ON THIS FOR A CAREER? My mom is a nurse practitioner at Arkansas Children’s and my dad works at Lakewood Middle School. As soon as I got out of high school, I wanted to be a pilot, or I thought I wanted to be a pilot, so I went to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to enroll in college. I was there for maybe about a year and I just did not like flying at all. I knew that full-time school wasn’t going to be for me; I liked to get outside and put my hands on stuff. When I came back I was kind of lost. Didn’t really know what I wanted to do, so I just started picking up jobs here and there. Then I heard about H-VOLT.

WHAT IS A TYPICAL DAY LIKE? As a first-year here, it’s you and a lineman. He’s there to train you. The serviceman’s job is basically all the power going to the house; we don’t work with all the transformers and stuff as much. We call the customer and see what they’re having issues with and see if we can fix it. Or, we might get a call from the police and have a house fire or car hit a pole and we’re the first person to go out there. If we can fix it, we just fix it then and there, otherwise we call in a crew to come out and help fit it.

My responsibilities when we get to the office are, I load the truck up with material and then I just sit back and I learn. That’s what I’m supposed to do.

DOES THE NATURE OF THE JOB MAKE YOU NERVOUS? IT CAN BE PRETTY DANGEROUS WORK. Yeah, you shouldn’t be nervous about it, because if you’re nervous about it some bad stuff’s going to happen. Just follow all your safety rules; safety rules are there for a reason, and if you follow them ain’t nothing going to happen to you.

WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION? Communication is a very important thing. It’s a dangerous job and you’ve got to be able to communicate what’s going to happen, when the wire’s going to be hot, when it’s not going to be hot. When you’re just learning, you have to be able to listen to people more than you talk. You also have to take direction and even constructive criticism. If someone corrects you, keep in mind they’re not trying to be mean about it, they’re trying to help you out.

Don’t get lost in the fog.