Work Ethic = Success
Published on Monday, March 24th, 2025
Colin Bryant hails from Taylorsville, North Carolina located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Alexander County is a rural community with plenty of outdoor activities, including hunting, fishing and ample space to shoot guns. Colin’s grandfather, Patrick Bryant, after retiring as a flight deck Safety Chief aboard the USS Enterprise, became a gunsmith in Memphis, Tennessee. He made one of the first rifles Colin ever shot at age five. Colin continued his affinity for firearms through scouting where he learned the fundamentals of marksmanship and safety.
After graduating from Alexander Central High School in 2019, Colin enrolled at Appalachian State University. For many reasons, Colin really struggled. He didn’t know what he wanted to study and major in, and the pandemic restrictions resulted in online classwork which proved a difficult learning method for Colin. He took a break from college and began thinking what it was he wanted to accomplish with his life.
In search of a career path, Colin discovered his interest in firearms and Gunsmithing and was completely astonished to find a college right here in North Carolina that specialized in it! Colin traveled to visit MCC in Troy, enjoyed an in-person tour with Gunsmithing Program Director Mark Dye, and decided to enroll in the Intro to Machining course which met two days each week for two months. (Machining is a process where a desired shape and dimensions are created by removing material from a larger piece; at MCC, machining is used to create finished components for firearms.)
Colin did extremely well in the Intro to Machining course, which gave him the confidence to enroll full-time at MCC as a Gunsmithing student. He has been successful in all aspects of the Gunsmithing curriculum and plans to graduate in summer of 2025.
Before coming to MCC, Colin’s educational journey certainly had some stops and starts. “It took time and some searching before I figured out what I wanted to do,” explains Colin. “I had skills and interests, but I needed to build some maturity and confidence before I could identify a path forward and commit myself.”
In addition to his coursework, Colin is the president of the MCC Gunsmithing Club. He was the first student chosen for the Benelli Internship in Maryland in 2024. Colin is the recipient of multiple scholarships since being enrolled at MCC including: the Melvin Forbes Next Generation Scholarship, the Mathew Sheehan Memorial Gunsmithing Scholarship, the CW Gunsmithing Merit Scholarship and an NRA Foundation Curriculum Gunsmithing Scholarship. Colin was also inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa National Honor Society in the spring of 2024.
“By taking some time off from college, I better understood the work ethic it takes to be successful. I took the time to explore careers that aligned with my interests, and this allowed me to figure out what it was I wanted to do. I was fortunate enough to find a career field full of options and opportunities.”