Whenever a star athlete receives scholarship offers to forward their academic and athletic careers, they usually hold a “signing day” in which the athlete signs a letter of intent to play for a certain school.
This process has almost exclusively been limited to the athletes, but this week at Phil Campbell High School that wasn’t the case. Three PCHS students, whom are all seniors, signed on with G&G Steel in Russellville on Wednesday to commit to working for the company once they finish up their time in high school. Cade Baker, Ben Pierce, and Jacob McCarley all sat at the same table and signed their letters of intent to work for the local company.
The students have been participating in the pathfinder program while also taking dual enrollment classes for welding at Northwest-Shoals Community College.
Scott Wiginton is the Career Tech Director in Franklin County and says that the career tech program has partnered up with G&G Steel for the past few years to bring more youth into the workforce as well as providing the students with an education at no extra cost. According to Wiginton, the students would leave school as soon as their core classes were completed, then head to G&G Steel to take on an apprenticeship while also getting paid for their time and work.
Wiginton says that he hopes to see more students take part in opportunities like the pathfinder program and that Baker, Pierce, and McCarley have done a tremendous job in making a better future for them.
“These guys have put in a lot of time and effort into this and they’ve been able to manage everything really well,” Wiginton said. “Companies like G&G Steel are expanding and need young candidates for their projects and these are those young candidates.”
Bret Gist, who is the head of G&G Steel, says that the students did a great job while they were working part-time during their apprenticeship and says that their supervisor was very impressed with the work they had done.
“They would work half a day in the industry to see how things would go and they excelled in each job that they were assigned,” Gist said. “Their supervisor liked them and always said good things about them. They have hard work ethic, they have done well and they’re a great group of kids.”
The three students’ welding instructor, Justin Steele, says that the students possess every quality that should go into a good welder.
“Having a part-time job while going to school and managing everything else takes a lot. These guys are great at managing a large workload, they have great hand-eye coordination, and they weld extremely well,” Steele said. “Work ethic and personality goes a long way in things like this and these three students have great work ethic as well as outstanding personalities.
Baker, Pierce, and McCarley are all close friends and have participated in the Franklin County Career Tech Program for years.
Pierce says that while not all 3 of them have been welding for as long as one another, in the end they knew that this is what they wanted to do.
“We’ve all been friends for a while and we welding has really been our big thing and so when Mr. Steele approached us about the program, we knew that’s what we wanted to do,” Pierce said.
McCarley moved to Phil Campbell when he was in the 9th grade and says that while he wasn’t sure that welding was the right thing for him at the start, he quickly realized that it was meant to be.
“I wasn’t really sure that welding was something that I wanted to do down the road. But the more I kept doing it, the better I got at it and the more I liked it and it just had that sort of domino effect to where it set things in motion,” McCarley said.
Baker stated on behalf of the 3 students just how thankful the students were for this opportunity to go through this program.
“The program meant a lot to us and without it I mean we wouldn’t be standing here signing on with G&G Steel more than likely. So the program has been great and it has really helped all 3 of us,” Baker said
