BOZEMAN — A career change led Amanda Andrews to trade her flute for lasers at Gallatin College Montana State University.  

The second-year photonics and laser technology student returned to school in 2024, more than 10 years after earning her bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s in music education at Illinois Wesleyan University and Northeastern Illinois University, respectively. Andrews said she wanted a forward-thinking career that could support her family, which was difficult when she taught K-12 music education and had to compete for limited positions and worry about job security during budget cuts. 

“I'm pushing myself to do something that's really outside my comfort zone, both in terms of the subject matter and where I'm at in my life in coming back to school,” said Andrews, who is originally from Chicago but moved to Bozeman from Seattle in 2021. “I feel like it makes me a great role model to my daughter to show her more female faces in STEM and by having good payoff at the end of the program with a strong career.” 

Her decision to enter a new field, sparked by a retired photonics industry member she met on the ski slopes, is already paying off. Andrews was one of four recipients in North America to receive the Eichenholz-SPIE Photonics Technician Scholarship, which awarded $2,500 to students pursuing careers in photonics and optics this fall.  

Photonics technicians control light to enhance sensing and imaging in electronic products, with applications ranging from self-driving cars to light mapping in wildfire detection. Southwest Montana has one of the highest  concentrations  of optics and photonics companies per capita in the nation, which foster careers in defense, manufacturing, communications and information technology.  

Andrews is one of many Gallatin College MSU students supported by financial aid. Last year, the college awarded about $109,000 in scholarships to 103 students through Cat Scholarships, which allow students to submit one application and be considered for dozens of scholarships, said Assistant Dean Nicole Berg. Like Andrews, students can receive help submitting applications and essays from MSU’s career coaches.  

“It just gives that extra piece of help to say, ‘I can finish this, I can do this and this is going to boost my confidence to be able to finish what I started,’” said Berg, adding that Gallatin College MSU also pulls from unused scholarship funds to assist students in tough situations, such as a lack of child care or money for gas. 

For Andrews, balancing several responsibilities with her photonics coursework is often challenging. She helps her 7-year-old get ready for school, attends class, finishes homework, walks her two dogs, cooks meals for her husband and daughter, and occasionally performs with her band, Celtic Collective. However, she said she felt much more prepared to be a successful student the second time around. She had a firmer grasp on time management and found that professors were willing to accommodate students by pushing back class times or staying behind to answer questions.  

“Amanda embodies what our students represent,” said Mark Craig, program director of photonics and laser technology. “A lot of our students are motivated to learn something new, particularly in high-tech industries. She’s focused on what she wants to get out of the program, and her work ethic is admirable.” 

Andrews said Gallatin College MSU builds a foundation of theory first and application second. When she studied resistors, which limit the flow of electric currents, she put the knowledge to use by building different types of circuits with resistors, observing how they behave when they are aligned in different formations. By the third semester of her electronics coursework, students are building and programming a robotic vehicle. 

This semester, Andrews and her peers are building lasers in an optics lab on MSU’s campus, with guidance from an instructor who has years of industry experience. It’s a more powerful laser than the class has used in previous years, and students must don protective eyewear and use detector cards — which convert infrared light into visible light — to adjust the laser beam, which is invisible to the naked eye.  

“That’s the nature of technician work that people who graduate from this program will do,” Andrews said. “We’ll be given a box of components and a schematic sheet, and told, ‘Build the thing on here, test it, make sure everything's aligned, document your data and get your higher-up engineer to sign off on it.’”  

Andrews has observed the day-to-day work of local technicians on seven industry tours so far. She said it is exciting to see how each company occupies its own niche in the field, viewing other companies as collaborators rather than competitors. She plans to find a local internship in the spring. Upon graduating from Gallatin College MSU, photonics and laser technology students often earn starting salaries up to about $65,000. 

“I'm not even done with the program, but I send resumes, and I'm getting emails or phone calls saying, ‘Can we interview you?’ And we're having recruiters who come into my classrooms and say, ‘Hey, think about us for a summer internship or when you graduate,’” Andrews said. “And that feels really powerful.”