When AI Took Her Job, She Took Up Tools: Scholarship Winner Finds a Future at UEI

Taylor Payne is an Electrician Technician student at UEI Morrow and the 2025 Recipient of the ‘Be The Change’ Scholarship. Before even finishing the Electrician Program, she has already been hired.

These days, there’s a lot of talk about artificial intelligence (AI) replacing workers. For Taylor Payne, it’s more than just buzz.

“I was laid off from my job doing I.T. because they rolled out AI at the company where I worked and a bunch of us were let go,” she said. “I just bought a house, and I don’t want to lose it, so I had to figure something else out.”

As artificial intelligence reshapes the workforce, Taylor is proof that resilience is still a human skill. Instead of despairing, the 30-year-old decided to start over in a field no machine could take from her.

“I asked myself ‘What is something that AI physically cannot take from us?’ If the lights go out, you can’t use AI to turn the lights back on,” Taylor said. “That’s when I decided to look into becoming an electrician technician.”

That question became her compass. So, she traded the digital world for electrical circuits, enrolling in the Electrician Technician program at United Education Institute (UEI) in Morrow. It is a decision that has already paid off.

“UEI has been an amazing experience for me,” she said. “The instructors are fantastic. They really go out of their way to help students. Mr. Griffin is my absolute favorite.” READ MORE