CHEYENNE - The license plate on Alicia Snowardt's black Hyundai Santa Fe stands out - just like her skills do.

"The best way to describe my daughter is how she put it on her license plate," says Adolph Martinez, the 20-year-old's father.

"It's Unique - spelled Uneek. " Alicia grew up watching her father work on cars and yearned to help him. But he never allowed it because he was afraid she would get hurt.

But Alicia, who is all of 5 feet tall, is doing it anyway. She began working at Spradley Motors' Quick Lane in Cheyenne in July.

Her job as a mechanic places Alicia squarely in a nontraditional occupation for women, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In 2003, the Labor Department reported that women comprised only 1.4 percent of the total mechanic work force in the United States.

She graduated from Laramie County Community College last May. During her schooling she got a $1,000 scholarship from Ford.

That helped her land her job at Spradley.

One of the first vehicles she worked on there was her father's truck.

"I had her change the oil and rotate my tires for me," Adolph says. "I felt a sense of pride when she did it." Adolph says his daughter always has shown perseverance, whether in school, in martial arts or with the fast-food job she held in high school.

"She had two cars before she was 16," he adds.

Alicia owned a 1989 Chevy Cavalier Z24, nicknamed "the bowling ball." It had a purple paint job with a marbled effect. It was her project car for auto tech class at Cheyenne Central High School.

She also owned a 1993 Toyota Corolla that she drove to school.

She saved up enough money to pay cash for both.

"I was worried about her overloading herself and that she was taking on too much, too fast," her father says. "I even talked to her about it, but I didn't want to hold her back."

Roberta Martinez, Alicia's mother, said: "Once she has her mind made up that she will stick with it, she does. She even has a black belt." But neither of her parents would have guessed that their daughter would be a mechanic.

"It's cool," Roberta says. "She works on the car for me." Adolph says his co-workers have watched Alicia pick up truck tires that are as big as she is. When they tell him about that young woman, Adolph replies proudly, "Oh, that's my daughter, Alicia." Alicia's husband, Rick Snowardt, says it's excellent that his wife is a mechanic.

"It's a tough route being a female in a man's world," he says. "She can handle it. She'll do well."

Alicia wears a blue, auto tech uniform and steel-toed boots as she performs routine maintenance on a customer's car.

Sweet Home Alabama plays on the radio. The smell of oil and gasoline wafts through the air as a cool breeze blows in through the open garage doors.

Her favorite part of the job, Alicia says, is being able to fix something when a car comes in not running properly - or not running at all.

"It's fun to figure out what's wrong, just to be able to see it work how it's supposed to when you're done," she says.

The most challenging part of being a female mechanic is people not believing in her skills, Alicia says.

"I don't ask for help unless I really need it," she says.

Matt Larson, 21, is one of Alicia's co-workers. As a gift, he sculpted her initials using the metal from a windshield wiper blade.

"I went through auto classes with her in college for two years," he says. "She speaks her mind, and a lot of times she's right.

Dan Diaz, 46, met Alicia when they both worked at the Wal-Mart Supercenter Tire and Lube Express.

He says Alicia always wants to learn more. She's taking online automotive classes to become an apprentice with Ford. To earn that, one of the master technicians will have to agree to take Alicia under his wing.

None of the technicians who work with Alicia has a problem that she's female, Diaz says.

"Usually it's the customers," he says. "They'll ask, 'Why is that girl working on my vehicle?' " But that talk has subsided, Diaz says, now that most of the customers know her and are impressed with her.

"Females, when they see another female working on their vehicle, they always say, 'It's about time,' " Diaz adds.

"With my dad's generation, they thought a female shouldn't be working on a vehicle. But this is a new era.

" People should get a grip."

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