RUSSELL Russell Area Technical Center students were named national champions in the Daughters of the American Revolution sculpture competition Saturday.
Students in the RATC welding program earned first place in a national competition with a metal sculpture depicting a theme of “Sparkling in the Stars.” Aaron Woolum, an instructor at RATC said winning first in the region and nationally speaks a lot to the dedication his students put into making an outstanding piece of art.
“We’ve never won anything on this scale before. It’s a humbling thing to be part of. It’s definitely something we are thankful to be introduced to and it’s been fun watching the kids learn,” Woolum said.
Trey Trofitt, senior at Russell Area Technical Center, helped build the space shuttle. He said it was a team effort and looking back at the beginning stages of piecing the sculpture together, he would have never thought it would amount to be as big as it has evolved.
“The feeling of putting it together and winning nationals is pretty cool. It’s nice to see the small project be put into something way bigger then what we expected and become something that really shocks everybody when they look at it.
“It’s really nice to see the amount of work and dedication that was put into it,” he added.
Woolum said they were made aware Saturday (March 23) the sculpture standing 6 feet tall, topped with an American flag sitting on a moon, would be permanently displayed at the DAR headquarters in Washington D.C.
“When we first built this, the original plan was to display the finished sculpture in front of our technology center here at school. We had no idea it was going as far as it did,” he said.
Jocelyn Salley, senior at RATC, used Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding to create the three fireworks displayed.
“It’s a lot more tedious and delicate. That was my first time actually working on TIG and it was a really nice opportunity because that’s one of the types of welding that’s not really capitalized on in the workshop because it’s so detail-oriented,” she said.
As previously reported by The Daily Independent, Woolum said the students showed up and showed out each day.
“The commitment to detail and the process these students have shown is tremendous,” Woolum said. “They have been very coachable, learned a lot and there were times they messed up and had to tear pieces back apart. ... They just handled all of that very well.
“It’s a huge opportunity for welding programs statewide to show students that there is a lot more that can be done with welding than just structural or pipeline ... our typical jobs that people think of when they think of the welding career.”
