FORGED FUTURES

TWO LOCAL WOMEN SPEAK ON THE RISING FORCE OF FEMALES WITHIN THE WELDING INDUSTRY.

BY BLAYKLEE FREED

Celia Reyes moved to Tulsa from Colorado in 2010 to attend Tulsa Welding School. While the school’s Florida and Texas campuses are closer to the ocean and tempting in their own rights, Reyes had family in Oklahoma and welcomed the support system.

Reyes chose welding because she saw her father’s successful career in thermite welding. “My dad welded for the railroad tracks — for Union Paci c Railroad,” Reyes says. She tested the waters at a community college class and excelled, committing to Tulsa Welding School shortly after. Now she works full time as a welder at John Zink Hamworthy Combustion and part time as a welding teacher.

She’s been with John Zink since graduating in 2011, welding ares for oil rigs and inspecting work. “(John Zink) actually came to the school looking for candidates to work for them,” Reyes says. “We took the weld tests at Tulsa Welding School, and once we passed our test, we went to work for them through a temp agency.” Reyes was hired for full-time work and has been there ever since.

Pathways at Tulsa Welding School include the seven-month professional welding program — with an additional seven-month option to earn an associate degree and become a certi ed welder inspector — and electrical and HVAC programs, according to Shalisa Powell, president of the school’s Tulsa campus.

“If they’re willing to put the time in and sacri ce a little bit for seven months, they can make a tremendous jump in, and change in, their lives,” Powell says. “ at’s important to us here.”

As a woman in welding, Reyes is in a minority — a fact Powell and Tulsa Welding School are working to change. “I’m passionate about increasing the female and the Black population in this school, which is mostly white-male dominated,” Powell says. “ ese women are erce, they’re tough, and I want them to see that they have just the same opportunities as men. (Learning trades) evens the playing eld. It’s not that they don’t have to deal with a lot of prejudice in the sense that people just assume you’re not strong enough or you’re not good enough, but if a weld is good, it’s good.”

Tulsa Welding School is holding spring open house events on March 29 and April 1, where potential students can learn about the school’s programs and take a look around. Powell recalls a student she met at a previous open house who became a nurse because that was what people expected of her. “She did nursing for 10-15 years, hated every moment of it and then decided (to weld),” Powell says. “I think we just steer girls and women to certain careers and we don’t o er the skilled trades. Girls become teachers, nurses, medical assistants, things like that ... (but women) are just as powerful in trades.” TP