GTCC helped Mininall, mother of four, understand there is no goal that is out of reach

“I wanted to show my girls how important education is … you never know where you can go and what you can do. I wanted to be my daughters’ success story.”

For Asia Mininall becoming a hair stylist was as natural as combing her daughters’ hair. It just took her awhile to figure it could be a career.

And now, almost a decade after entering a Guilford Technical Community College classroom for the first time, she is back in the classroom, working toward a second career: medical administration, billing and coding.

The 46-year-old Philadelphia transplant was 28 years old and the mother of four daughters when she first enrolled at GTCC. In the beginning, it was a daunting task, but she soon discovered her age was actually on her side.

“I was really nervous at first. I went into the classrooms and saw lots of younger students,” recalls Mininall. “I will say I was more mature. I knew what I wanted and was more focused. I wanted to get into school, get my career started. Age was an advantage. I had this motherly demeanor about me. I was always talking to other students, encouraging them.”

When Mininall first enrolled at GTCC, there was little doubt as to her course of study.

“I was thinking cosmetology right off the bat. Since I was a little girl, I had my hands in somebody’s hair, in my baby dolls’ hair. Then I had four daughters and was doing things with their hair.” Mininall said she entered the cosmetology curriculum mainly to learn how to braid hair. “I had never realized cutting hair was something I could do.”

Not only could she cut hair, she cut it well. Almost in the blink of an eye Mininall was competing in the SkillsUSA state and national events, the premier showcase of America’s mostly highly skilled career and technical education.

“I was competing against guys with fancy clippers and stuff, but once I started, teachers were giving me thumbs up,” said Mininall, who captured the North Carolina state championship and advanced to the national event. “It was exciting to be able to do all of these things and go to Kentucky (for nationals) and compete against 50-some schools from across the country.”

Mininall breezed through state certification exams after graduation and immediately landed a job at national chain Great Clips. She abruptly discovered her job was more than hair cutting skills.

“You’re fresh out of school and think you are the best hair cutter there is,” she said. “You can be the best barber or hairstylist in the world, but you have to stand out from the rest. That’s when you tap into the rest of your education, communications, sociology, working with different groups and cultures.

“How you dress, how you look, how you smell are all important. I learned to smile and be approachable. Then I realized why I took a lot of the core classes.”

In 2023, Mininall opened her own salon and rapidly developed a dedicated clientele. But then she developed respiratory issues, the result, she says, of an allergic reaction to some of the aerosol products she used in her work. The illness forced her to shutter her business and step away from work entirely while she recuperated.

She eventually returned to Great Clips, where she works now while attending GTCC.

“That (the illness) is what taught me I had to go back to school. Healthwise, physically I know I’ll not be able to do this forever.”

Much of her current curriculum is online, which was a bit foreign to her in the beginning.

“I had never worked online before, but it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. It became a little difficult when I had to go to the hospital, but I had my laptop with me,” she said. “It’s gotten a little easier; I stayed up to date on my assignments. I let the instructors know I may need some extra time, but I’ve never needed it.”

Through both tours at the college, the faculty and staff at GTCC have left a lasting impression on Mininall.

“They have kept me motivated. When I needed somebody to talk with, they were there, even with my personal life,” Mininall said of her instructors and counselors. “They made ways for us to succeed. I knew if I got stuck on something, I could reach out to them. The professors and teachers are just awesome. I never met one that wasn’t pushing me.”

Two of Mininall’s daughters are now grown, 22 and 20, and have moved back to Philadelphia. The other two are 12 and 13 and enrolled in local schools.

It is these four girls, the girls whose hair she ran her fingers through when they were tiny, who have been Mininall’s main motivation in school, work, and life.

“I wanted to show my girls how important education is … you never know where you can go and what you can do. I wanted to be my daughters’ success story.”