Two New Haven High School students, Mathew Clines (senior) and Nick Slocum (senior), go to the Four Rivers Career Center everyday for Votec. They participated in the Welding Fabrication event in the Missouri SkillsUSA Leadership and Skills District Contest.
As part of the event, the team was given certain materials, and members were instructed to create something. They had to make a welding stand; the whole procedure took four hours.
Nick and Mathew both received the gold medal and will be continuing to the state competition, which is held at the State Technical College of Missouri in Linn. The state competition will be held from March 30 to April 2.
When asked why they participated Mathew promptly responded, “He [Mr. Charles Livell] chose us out of all the students.”
In class, they learn about various types of welds in various positions. The class is a combination of book work and hands-on lab work.
Some of the lab work they do consists of building various structures. For instance, they just finished building a fire pit in the lab.
“Mr. Livell really believes in us. He knew we had the potential to make it to state and, hopefully, to nationals,” Nick explained.
Nick and Mathew go to the Career Center as part of the welding class. Nick reported, “We are the three best welders in the morning class.”
Good luck at state!