When Rylen Rae Enriquez graduated from Aims Community College last year, she was already charting an uncommon path.
From Aims to the Ocean Floor: Rylen Rae Enriquez’s Next Chapter in Welding
January 08, 2026
As a welding student, she stood out for her technical skill, grit and curiosity about where welding could take her beyond the shop floor. She had heard that “underwater welders make a lot of money.” In addition, she believed that this dangerous job could provide her with an adrenaline rush that she desired. That curiosity led her to explore underwater welding and commercial diving, a goal that felt ambitious, demanding and in line with her interests.
Aims provided Rylen with a foundation on which she developed her welding skills, confidence and professional direction. Her next step took her to Seattle, where Rylen enrolled at the Divers Institute of Technology. Her classes in commercial diving began in October 2025.
Training days begin at 5:30 a.m. Rylen and her classmates set up dive stations and complete four to five dive rotations per day. When she’s not underwater, Rylen fills essential topside roles, managing dive charts, handling communications and tending to divers entering and exiting the water.
Rylen’s training began with an intensive plunge into underwater physics and medical safety, where she learned how to handle the life-threatening risks that come with diving. That foundation led to in-water drills, including emergency air procedures, like switching to a backup bottle or using the helmet shell to breathe in the event of system failure. Rylen is also mastering how to move heavy objects underwater, tie precise knots and operate efficiently while submerged.
Since starting the program, Rylen has hit several milestones she’s especially proud of. She is the only woman in a class of 32 students and has been entrusted with a leadership role, creating daily dive bills that can change at a moment’s notice and helping instructors manage operations. She was also the first in her class selected as a standby diver, a role that requires demonstrating the ability to assist a diver in distress, a significant vote of confidence in both her skill and composure.
Recently, Rylen learned that she had received an American Welding Society Scholarship, an award she had applied for with the help of Aims faculty member Graham Bylsma before graduating.
She is set to graduate from the Divers Institute of Technology on May 27 and will soon begin searching for her first role in the commercial diving field. Wherever her career takes her next, its foundation was built at Aims.
