Female Plumber Flushes the Competition
Date Posted: March 21, 2016
Posted In: Ideas, Workforce,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Ariel Ruff was the go-to child when anything broke in the house — not because she was the likely culprit but most likely to fix it.
Ruff’s father was a doctor who died when she was 3. Her mother is a professor at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and legally blind.
Ruff, now 26 and living in Edwardsville, would fix the dishwasher or washing machine when they malfunctioned.
“I grew up getting satisfaction from watching things work … something that you’ve put together,” she said. A bright and motivated student, she graduated high school early and started college expecting to become a nurse.
Into her second year, she decided she wanted to pursue her passion. When Ruff told her mother she wanted to leave nursing school, her mother encouraged her to make a plan and pursue the career she wanted.
“I’ve always wanted to be a plumber since I was little,” she said. She has innate mechanical ability and loves water. She researched her options and enrolled in a trade school, which would count toward the required four-year apprenticeship required to become a journeyman.
“Plumbing is a puzzle,” Ruff explained. You have to know codes and legalities. It takes intelligence and mechanical ability. “I have respect for that,” she said. She graduated summa cum laude from Ranken Technical College and is a senior apprentice with Roto-Rooter.