By Chris Levister

Faeesha Dean knows something about rejection and perseverance. She readily identifies with the historic battle waged between senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.

"Both fought tough battles, both were intensely focused, both were labeled underdogs, neither was willing to quit, even when in senator Clinton's case, people said it was time to surrender," explains Dean.

Rollerblading in Anne Shirrells Park, Dean, 32 is celebrating her own victory over rejection.  Last month the single mother raising her eight year old daughter on welfare broke through one of the construction trade's toughest glass ceilings: apprentice power lineman. She joins the ranks of a handful of elite women in one of the nation's oldest, most coveted construction trades.  

"Power linemen are a special breed. You've got to be thick skinned, tough as nails, able to withstand delirious heights, rain, hail, wind, extreme heat and extreme cold." Not to mention says Dean, "the ever present male cat calls, crude jokes, and the occasional ‘crew' trucks adorned with lets say, photos you wouldn't want your 8-year-old to see."

"It comes with the territory. After a while you learn how to deal with just about anything the job throws at you. You spring up under every disadvantage," says the San Bernardino resident.

A nationwide shortage of linemen has been building for years. As legions of aging workers edge closer to retirement, America's appetite for energy is rising, boosting demands for power line installation.

The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) partnership and its local training arm J.A.T.C. located in Riverside at IBEW Local 47, provide highly skilled workers for the electrical construction industry.

Acceptance into the apprentice program is just the beginning. Dean faces classroom/ field instruction and 7,000 hours on the job training, lasting about 3-1/2 years, plus years more honing the institutional knowledge currently flowing out of the industry with the retirement exodus.

A career as a lineman is lucrative (a journeyman lineman can earn an annual income in excess of $100,000 before overtime) but keeping the world's largest and most complex network of electric lines powered up, and maintained is not for everyone says David Crawford a director for the California-Nevada Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (J.A.T.C.).

"Climbing a 150 foot transmission tower looks dangerous you're working with a very powerful and deadly force erecting and maintaining power lines hundreds of feet in the air.  It requires a great deal of concentration, skill and knowledge."  However, says Crawford with proper training and strict attention to safety the dangers are minimal.

Dean agrees the road to lineman apprentice is not for the meek. In 2006 J.A.T.C. rejected her application. In a nutshell, they said - ‘you can't cut the mustard'. That made me mad, but I refused to give up," said Dean weighting in at a super fit 116 pounds. 

"I can scale a 55-foot pole carrying a 50 pound tool belt faster than," she laughs, "the speed of electricity."  

Living on a monthly welfare check with barely enough to pay for gas, food, rent, and life necessities for her eight year old daughter Novelica, Dean had two choices: give up or settle on loading utility trucks as a groundman.

"I was humiliated and angry but I never lost faith in my ability to overcome rejection. They told me to reapply, I had to take two highly technical electrical courses, become a groundman, acquire 1,000 hours or get a commercial class ‘A' license. Some people labeled me an underdog so I set out to prove them wrong."  

San Bernardino mom Faeesha Dean says the road to earning a coveted J.A.T.C. Power Lineman Apprenticeship carries an important lesson: Don't give up!

Rising quickly to excavation supervisor, Dean never lost sight of landing a career in the largely white, male dominated power industry. An industry some women and minorities argue still harbors the vestiges of a ‘good ole boy' network.

Prior to 1971 women and minorities were virtually barred from linemen jobs until the U.S. Department of Justice forced AT&T, then the nation's largest private employer, to sign a landmark consent decree to eliminate discriminatory recruiting, hiring and promotion practices.

In 2007, undaunted by the seemingly insurmountable obstacles Dean enrolled in the United States Truck Driving School.

"I was determined to get a class ‘A' license. I worked 10 hours a day 6 days a week plus went to class just to qualify for a lineman apprenticeship interview.  I fell asleep in my car with a textbook in my lap. I napped anywhere I could lay my head. It came down to showing them I had grit."

Dean, now on a training assignment in San Francisco, is understandably worried about balancing Novelica back home with a rigorous 6 month work schedule.

"Thank God for my mother and loving family- Novelica is in good hands."

J.A.T.C. instructor Chuck Burnet credits Dean's success to nail biting perseverance, enviable skill, agility and timing. Demand for this type of work will never go "out of style"...as long as folks use electricity. He said Dean's willingness to travel where demand calls virtually guarantees her a lifetime of work.

Burnet said J.A.T.C. is recruiting at local high schools and job fairs hoping to attract more women and minorities to the trade.

At Shirrell's Park located in San Bernardino's Westside, Dean trains her eyes on a small slice of the nation's complex network of transmission towers, miles of high voltage lines and 250,000 substations. "That's me," she says beaming pointing to a tower in the distance. "That's power to the people".

Dean says her success boils down to a process of becoming who you already are. "You have to believe in yourself. I want my daughter to know she can do anything even in the face of rejection. I discovered that my capacities were real. It was like finding a fortune in the lining of an old coat."

"Succeeding in the face of rejection is like climbing a tower, the view halfway up is better than the view from the base and it steadily becomes finer as the horizon expands."