When Molly Schifferns signed off her final online course for Gallatin College Montana State University in May, she laid on her bedroom floor and felt happy tears slip down her cheeks.
The 28-year-old from Belgrade had just completed her two-year associate’s degree in drafting and CAD technology, where students learn to create digital models for architects, engineers and manufacturers. It was something Schifferns never imagined herself capable of as someone who struggled to navigate high school with ADHD and autism before receiving diagnoses years later.
“At the time, it was just really hard to picture anything beyond just getting through right now and getting through today, so college was never something I even pictured myself attempting,” said Schifferns, who will enroll in MSU’s four-year civil engineering program in the spring semester of 2026. “But getting into drafting, realizing I enjoy it and I’m actually good at it, and having people who are there to support me was such a huge change.”
Schifferns enrolled at Gallatin College MSU in 2023, expecting it to be a “big mountain to climb,” she said. She was a stay-at-home mother of two and the owner of a small clothing business, Unlucky Goods, and she worried she wouldn’t thrive in school. Getting her children ready each morning, working for a local engineering firm and finishing homework — often at midnight — was a balancing act, but Schifferns found her “technical brain” loved absorbing information, and it was worth the work to invest in her family’s future, as well as her own.
Incoming students typically begin drawing models by hand, which Schifferns discovered years earlier by peering at her husband’s drafting homework for Gallatin College MSU, where he earned a degree in IT network technology in 2021. At the time, Schifferns thought computer drafting programs, such as AutoCAD and SolidWorks, could be useful to create designs for Unlucky Goods. The software can model everything from subdivision layouts to prosthetics.
Program director Sean Peterson said it was inspiring to witness her visible enthusiasm for learning and ability to share knowledge with her classmates, both in person and online, over the past two years.
“She’s probably one of the most solid and dependable students I’ve had in the 11 years I’ve been teaching,” he said. “When someone’s enthusiastically taking in everything you say, it ends up benefiting all the students in class because that person makes you want to do better.”
Peterson said Schifferns coordinated industry tours and internships for her peers using connections from Hyalite Engineers, a firm headquartered in Bozeman, where she became an intern in June 2024. And when the firm replaced 20 drafting desks, which cost about $500 each, she encouraged Hyalite Engineers to donate them to Gallatin College MSU to furnish its future drafting or interior design classrooms on MSU’s campus.
“I really like when everyone is willing to lift each other up,” she said. “College is the first place where I’ve really had that experience.”
At Hyalite Engineers, Schifferns is a structural drafter who collaborates with engineers to create detailed models in the program Revit, from a building’s rafters to its flooring framework. From there, contractors can begin building with a better understanding of a structure’s layout and required materials.
The Mīyō Pimātisiwinkamik Youth Center in Box Elder was one of Schifferns’ first assignments at the firm using precast concrete, which is poured into a mold and transported to a construction site. The center is estimated to be completed in 2026. She also modeled an aquatic center in Livingston that is currently undergoing construction.
“You can see engineering as just a job, or you can use it to really help people, and that’s so cool to me,” she said.
Community-focused projects were also her focus in drafting classes, particularly her construction visualization course, where she designed a 50,000-square-foot greenhouse built into a hillside. The greenhouse, made with precast concrete walls and steel framing, was intended to feed Bozeman residents with a grocery store-like concept.
Schifferns featured the project in her portfolio for a second-year course, where students create a digital collection of their work, taught by adjunct professor Hannah Hillberry. While many students designed simple warehouses per assignment instructions, Schifferns went above and beyond to model a creative structure and find solutions for building code limitations, said Hillberry, who added that Schifferns’ inquisitiveness and attention to detail will take her far.
“I’ve worked with many engineers who struggle to use their computer program to draw what they’re visualizing in 3D, so this degree’s going to make her a more well-rounded engineer in the future,” she said.
Finding a steppingstone to a new career as a nontraditional student at Gallatin College MSU was a welcome surprise, Schifferns said. So was receiving a 2025 Founder’s Day Award for Student Excellence, which recognizes the top 40 students across MSU.
“Gallatin College opens doors for a group of people like me, who didn’t think there were doors to be opened,” she said.
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