College hosts welding rodeo
Competition winners awarded scholarship money, other prizes
FORT SMITH — More than 50 high school students from nine school districts in the River Valley participated in the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith’s welding rodeo Friday in hopes to receive scholarships and other prizes.
Students divided into four groups and were given a tour of the college’s Baldor Center’s welding lab, completed a written general knowledge test and performed two welding techniques — arc welding and metal inert gas welding. Both techniques allowed students to display welding abilities by welding a T-joint in a vertical position.
“We’re looking for consistency and proper tie-in of the welds,” said Jason Keyes, lead faculty member of the welding and auto department.
The Welding Technology Department of the UAFS College of Business and Industry has hosted the event for five years now.
This year’s welding rodeo winners were Clark McElrath from Western Yell High School in first place, Zane George from Western Yell High School in second place and Angel Alvarez from Danville High School in third place.
McElrath received a $2,000 scholarship, George received a $1,500 scholarship and Alvarez received a $1,000 scholarship. They all also received various welding tools.
Keyes said aside from the competition and prizes, the rodeo helps bring awareness to the welding program at UAFS, gives prospective students a chance to see the shop and facility, and gain insight into opportunities available to graduates.
The Western Arkansas Technical Center — or WATC — is a UAFS program that provides cutting-edge technical and career programming to high school students in 22 districts throughout the River Valley. Students enrolled in the program interested in welding can complete an associate degree at no cost while in high school, graduating with a valuable credential and high-demand skill right out of the classroom, officials said.
“We already have WATC kids that come from all of these high schools, but some of them may not have wanted to do WATC,” Keyes said. “Maybe they want to learn this when they graduate. Maybe they want to come here as a UAFS student and get a degree in welding. It’s important because not everybody really wants to go to college and work behind a desk, get a bachelor’s degree
and stuff like that. They maybe just want to get a skilled trade and go to work, and that’s what we do.”
Espen Baldogo, a previous WATC student through Southside High School in Fort Smith and a current welding student at UAFS, said events such as the welding rodeo help students get better opportunities for jobs.
“I just knew that there was a high demand for the trade, and I always knew that if I knew how to do this, that it could help me one day if I ever needed to use it. It’s a good skill to learn and know how to use,” Baldogo said about welding.
During the event, students had time to meet with local employers including Hytrol, Boyd Metals, Mid-South Steam Boiler, Ryerson Metal, MultiCraft Contractors, Airgas and Advanced Mechanical Automation Co.
Marcus Nastasi, fabrication division manager for Multi-Craft Contractors in Fort Smith, said he talked to students with a range of plans from working in welding, going into the military or not knowing what they want to do yet.
“We’re hearing a little bit of everything as these young people try to figure out what they want to do in their career,” he said. “We’ve got a young man that’s going to graduate in May that reached out probably a month ago, and we hired him on part-time. He works for us now and when he graduates, he’s going to come on full-time with us. Great kid. So this is a really good thing for obviously everybody here, getting in touch with the youngsters as they start their careers.”
“Everyone is looking for welders, and they can’t get enough of them,” Keyes said. “We want to show kids the program and its benefit if they come to school here and an idea of what could be outside of school.”