Campus News

High school students’ passion for welding burns hot at Great Falls College competition

Zoe Belinda from Red Lodge, the only girl in the competition, plans to pursue a degree in engineering and thinks the welding experience will pay dividends down the road.

GREAT FALLS, Mont. – David Hanson was bonding Thursday.

The Helena Capital senior was one of 22 students from throughout Montana who was participating in a welding competition at Great Falls College MSU.

For Hanson, it was a chance to get familiar with the Great Falls College welding shop before he starts school here in the fall after graduating.

He knows Todd Reser, a welding instructor at the school, so he already knows about the program and that bond is a lot of why he is going to attend it.

"I know the way he teaches, and this will be a good program," said Hanson, who also is impressed with the welding facility.

The competition is part of SkillsUSA and takes part during February as part of National Career and Technical Education Month.

During the competition, students perform three different types of welding – shielded metal arc welding, gas metal arc welding and gas tungsten arc welding. They also do oxy fuel cutting and must pass a written test. Each student receives pieces of metal and rotates through different stations to perform each type of welding and cutting. After they finish, judges review their final product and give them a score.

Thursday's event was a warmup for state SkillsUSA welding competition in Havre at Montana State-Northern on April 5-9, and, from there, students can go on to the national competition.

The competition at Northern is not just welding as students in more than just trades programs are evaluated on things such as employability, interviewing and communication skills, and teamwork.

The competition at Great Falls College on Thursday featured welding.

Students were given an initial set of plans and were thrown a curveball immediately when those plans changed.

Colin Nielson, a senior at Helena High, was the grand prize winner on Thursday.

"I got into welding a bumper for a truck of mine, and that piqued my interest," he said. "And then I took a welding class junior year.

Nielson hopes to combine his loves of swimming – he was on the Bengal swim team – with welding down the road and become an underwater welder.

"Swimming has been a pretty huge part of my life and I like to think welding has, too," he said."

Gage Simonek, a junior at Great Falls High who is interested in welding as both a career and hobby, enjoyed the challenge of the last-second change in plans.

"It was good, I had to think outside the box a little bit on mine," he said.

Drew Williams, one of six students from Red Lodge, also liked the challenges presented by the competition.

"It puts you in a stressful situation so that you can see how you perform under pressure, so it's a lot like a job," he said.

Williams plans to attend Montana Tech in Butte to become an engineer.

He thinks his experience as a welder in high school will give him a bit of a leg up on the competition.

"I'll have some hands-on experience, which will look good on a resume," he said.

He had never been to the welding shop at Great Falls College.

"I'm really impressed by it," he said. "It's new and clean and up to date and has all of the tools you would need to be effective."

Zoe Belinda, a sophomore at Red Lodge, was the only girl in the competition.
She was hooked into the trades when she took a 4-stroke engine class in middle school.

"A lot of the boys have a lot more shop experience than I do, they've been out in the shop since they were 5 years old, but it's not that big a deal," she said. "I'm just one of them.

The competition is her first, and she said it stretched her skills as there were some things she had never done before.

"I'm not sure I've done my best, but that's Ok, I'm having fun, and that's what's important," she said.

Like Williams, she plans to pursue a degree in engineering (she's thinking environmental engineering) and thinks the welding experience will pay dividends down the road.

"We hope this competition lights a fire in these students about the importance of trades education," said Doug Zander, Great Falls College welding instructor and event coordinator.

Joel Sims, the director of the trades division at the Great Falls College, enjoys having the students on campus.

"Trades education is such an important part of the mission of Montana schools as we prepare the next generation of employees for meaningful careers in high-wage, high-need areas," Sims said. "It is fun to have the welding students on campus showing off their skills and showcasing the quality education they are receiving in schools all around Montana."

Results:

Cutting

First place (three-way tie): Ruff Elton, Red Lodge; Luc Ronan, Helena High; Byren Stoner, Helena High, 17.

Shielded metal arc welding

First place (two-way tie): Spencer Jacobson, Red Lodge; Drew Williams, Helena Capital, 50;

Third place: Colin Nielson, Helena High, 49.

Gas Metal Arc Welding

First place: Colin Neilson, Helena High, 23.

Second place: Bryce Elton, Red Lodge; August Nelson, Helena Capital, 20.

Gas Tungsten arc welding

First Place (tie): August Nelson, Helena Capital; Byren Stoner, Helena High, 17.

Test

First place (three-way tie): Ruff Elton, Red Lodge; Luc Ronan, Helena High; Byren Stoner, Helena High, 25.

Virtual reality gas metal arc welding

First place: Bryce Elton, Red Lodge, 87.

Second place: Colin Neilson, Helena High, 83.

Third place: Jyler Thompson, Townsend, 81.

Virtual reality shielded metal arc welding

First place: Spencer Jacobson, Red Lodge, 89.

Second place: Estin Flamand, Great Falsl High, 88.

Third place: Brady Grove, Red Lodge, 86.

Overall

First place: Colin Nielson, Helena High, 136.

Second place: Ruff Elton, Red lodge, 131.

Third Place: Spencer Jacobson, Red Lodge, 129.