Top student welders take over SkillsUSA competitions in Atlanta

Teenagers and adults alike welcomed the sights and sounds of hundreds of young welders, carpenters, mechanics, cooks, and others all together again under one roof for the national SkillsUSA Championships.

Some things had not changed since the last time the national event was held entirely in person in 2019. High school and college/postsecondary competitors brought with them the focus, drive, and skills best representing their hometowns and schools. Other things had changed, like SkillsUSA relocating from Louisville to Atlanta.

“I don’t think there’s ever going to be a substitute for the nervousness of competition, where you have 30 or 40 other young men and women next to you,” said Ashley Applegate, a SkillsUSA competition judge and director of training at Kentucky Welding Institute, Flemingsburg, Ky.

“I don’t think there’s any person in SkillsUSA who wants to go through another virtual contest,” he added.

The SkillsUSA Championships is the centerpiece of the organization’s annual National Leadership and Skills Conference (NLSC), a week-long celebration of students in various trades—a celebration canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19 and scaled back to a hybrid format in 2021.

More than 6,500 high school and college students competed in 108 different trade, technical, and leadership competitions in the 2022 edition, held at Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center. This included dozens of students and teams competing in three welding categories: welding, welding fabrication, and welding sculpture.

Students Weld for Success

High school contestant Tyler Childress was among the more than 50 high school and college students showcasing metal sculptures in the welding sculpture competition. Besides putting his sculpture on display, Childress and the others were interviewed by judges about their work, how they did it, and why.

“I’m a little anxious; I’m a little nervous. But I feel if I go over what I did and explain it well, I'll be alright,” said Childress, of May River, S.C.

Childress welded together a replica of his Jeep and palm trees. The 70-lb. sculpture honored his grandmother, who sold him the Jeep.

He and other contestants couldn’t paint their sculptures, so Childress channeled his inner creativity to add some color.

“I used some of the things I learned in my welding class—the heat transfer, chemicals, and what happens when you put certain chemicals on metal,” he said. “It gives that color effect. I used a lot of heat and different chemicals to give it color.”

While Childress did not medal in his category, Jocelyn Jarnigan did for her waterfall sculpture. The Elizabethton, Tenn., student took bronze in the high school welding sculpture competition.

Jarnigan said she spent dozens of hours working on the sculpture in some form or another, using nuts, 20-ga. sheet metal, and 1/8- and 3/8-in. base plates.

The 18-year-old chose a waterfall because she wanted her work to represent where she came from.

“I just wanted to remind myself of my childhood. So, I decided to do a waterfall with a forest and wildlife,” she said.

Jarnigan continued: “I wanted to bring what makes me happy [to Atlanta]. I live in the mountains; you get to see waterfalls there. But not everyone gets to see waterfalls. So, I wanted to recreate them for people to see.”

“You’ll see things that are very representative of their lives,” said Shanen Aranmor, welding sculpture judge and founder of Weld Like A Girl. “I’m sure there’s a story behind each one.”

Students’ sculptures—which were welded and fabricated at home and not in Atlanta—are only one piece of the competition, said Aranmor. The sculpture itself was worth 450 points, a notebook chronicling the project was 300 points, the interview was 200 points, and a written test was worth 50 points.

“I expected the bar to be a little bit lower this year because some of the regional contests in some states were canceled and some state contests went virtual,” she added. “I was pleasantly surprised that we have some really outstanding sculptures. Every year it tends to get better.”

In the welding category, students tested their skills and knowledge in multiple areas, including measuring weld replicas using weld measuring gauges, laying out a plate, using oxyacetylene equipment for cutting, gas metal arc welding (GMAW), flux-cored arc welding (FCAW), making welds in various positions, and using a combination machine capable of providing the correct welding current for shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) and gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW).

Volunteers from industry with hundreds of years of combined experience helped set up the dozens of booths and workstations and ran the welding competition, said Applegate.

“This is the future of our industry,” he said.

Unlike welding and welding sculpture, which were individual competitions, welding fabrication was a team event. Teams of three worked together to build something based on blueprints provided to them, all while demonstrating their knowledge and skills in multiple welding and cutting processes.

Teams were provided the tools and equipment needed to weld, bend, and grind, and had a little more than six hours to complete their task.

The challenge? Building the welding screen anchors for next year’s welding fabrication competition.

“They're building something in the contest to benefit the contest,” said Rex Hardman, a welding fabrication judge and a corporate account manager for Miller Electric.

“Whether they complete the project or not, they all leave happy with what they’ve accomplished. And I love seeing that,” Hardman said.

Adults Marvel at Future Welders

The National Leadership and Skills Conference and the SkillsUSA Championships are not just for the students, though. Dozens of companies and organizations were in attendance, ready to talk to competitors or observe them at work. Friends, families, and instructors also were on hand to cheer on the students.

“Where is welding not seen? It's in the chair you’re sitting in; the bed you were on probably had welded brackets, even if it’s made from wood; your car has welds on it,” said Jeff Seelye, an instructor for the Eaton RESA (Regional Education Service Agency) high school welding program, based out of Lansing Community College in Lansing, Mich.

“This building we’re in has welds,” Seelye said of the sprawling Georgia World Congress Center. “It's everywhere.”

People like Seelye have attended SkillsUSA on multiple occasions. Others, like metal sculptor and Netflix’s “Metal Shop Masters” contestant Ivan Iler, visited SkillsUSA for the first time. Iler judged the welding sculpture competition and said he was impressed with what he saw, noting some of the sculptures should be on display in art galleries. He was not only impressed with the young welders but also with those competing in other trades categories.

“This is the kind of thing that tells kids who want to get into trades that there is a place for you—not only to do this, but to excel and compete in,” he said.

“There's so much work and effort that goes into something like this and so much of our society has pushed this down. Something like [SkillsUSA] lifts it back up.”

SkillsUSA Names its National Welding Winners

The National Leadership and Skills Conference and the SkillsUSA Championships will return to Atlanta in 2023.

Below are the medalists for the three welding-related competitions.

WELDING

High School Winners

• Gold: Matthew Woolcock, Venango Technology Center, Oil City, Pa.
• Silver: Trey Lazauskas, Chariho Career Tech Center, Wood River Junction, R.I.
• Bronze:Jesse Taggett, Presque Isle Regional CTC, Presque Isle, Maine

College Winners

• Gold: Michael Shoemaker, Pennsylvania College of Technology, Williamsport, Pa.
• Silver: Hunter Howard, Northeast Community College, Norfolk, Neb.
• Bronze: Armando Urias, Central New Mexico Community College, Albuquerque, N.M.

WELDING FABRICATION

High School Winners

• Gold: Team K (Camden Elmo, Alaina Myers, Beauen Garman), New Oxford High School, New Oxford, Pa.
• Silver: Team V (Bryan Fischli, Connor Kurtz, Andrew Rimes), The Mount Academy, Esopus, N.Y.
• Bronze: Team R (Elijah Bothwell, Ty Coshow, Jack Doyle), Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, Neb.

College Winners

• Gold: Team E (Walter Armijo, Christopher Rodriguez, Zane Horton), Central New Mexico Community College, Albuquerque, N.M.
• Silver: Team U (Colton Bradford, Edgar Galicia, Noland Vahle), North Central Kansas Technical College, Beloit, Kan.
• Bronze: Team M (Alex Cahoone, Matthew Mykut, Tanner Sidella), Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, Lancaster, Pa.

WELDING SCULPTURE

High School Winners

• Gold: Damon R. Aitken, Albert Lowry High School, Winnemucca, Nev.
• Silver: Sofia Ramirez-Granick, Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School, Marlborough, Mass.
• Bronze: Jocelyn Jarnigan, Unaka High School, Elizabethton, Tenn.

College Winners

• Gold: Clinton Kizarr, Red River Technology Center, Duncan, Okla.
• Silver: Jonathan Thoma, Tennessee College of Applied Technology - Crossville, Crossville, Tenn.
• Bronze: Alexander Baker, State Technical College of Missouri, Linn, Mo.