John Sykes of Bainbridge placed first in Welding Sculpture at the State SkillsUSA Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta during the spring semester. This month, John and his fellow first prize winners will return to Atlanta for the annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference, where he will compete for a national prize.
John graduated from Bainbridge High School in 2021 as an honor graduate. “I had a few teachers question my thoughts on attending a technical college. They thought it would be a waste of my potential.” However, he had his older sister Morgan on his side, encouraging him to follow the educational path that made sense for him. “Morgan has always been there for me, always supported me. She is the most consistent element in my life. She encouraged me to do what fulfilled me. She is a dream chaser and she wants me to chase my dreams, too.”
He chose the welding industry because he is looking for an opportunity that will challenge his natural abilities to work with his hands and solve problems. “I’ve always been good with my hands and committing things to muscle memory, but what I really like is problem-solving. You can teach somebody how to run a bead, you can teach someone how to set up the machine, but you can’t really teach someone how to solve a problem. That comes from aptitude and experience.”
For the SkillsUSA state-level competition this spring, his instructor Brad Braswell encouraged him to try his hand at welding sculpture. “It was the first time I had ever made anything like that!” However, Brad saw John’s natural artistic inclinations and challenged him to give welding sculpting a try. John found inspiration in an unusual place: His dad’s automotive shop. “The base of the sculpture is actually the crank pulley from my dad’s old Camaro! He had rebuilt the motor and left the old crank pulley just sitting on a shelf. I went rummaging through his shop and when I saw the pulley, I knew it could be a perfect planter for my bonsai tree.” He approached the rest of the project like a clay sculptor, using fire and metal to fashion the miniature tree that he envisioned.
After his portion of the competition ended, he spent much of his time at the state SkillsUSA competition talking to hiring managers and networking with industry professionals. ‘I didn’t go there with any expectations, because I had never been to anything like that. But what I learned is that for young people trying to find their way into the job market, there are unlimited doors and they are all unlocked to anybody that wants to walk through them.”