Students in Kevin Valentine’s welding program at Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES in Fredonia recently welcomed partners from Jamestown Advanced Products and members of the media to witness their progress on their final project, a barbecue grill. Jamestown Advanced donated the goods for each student to create their own grill free of charge.

Josh Lodestro, director at Jamestown Advanced Products, explained, “Kevin (Valentine) reached out to me and said, ‘We need a final project, would Jamestown be willing to donate a grill for the students to work on?’ So we said, ‘Why don’t we donate a grill for every student?'”

After completion, the grills will be sent to Jamestown Advanced, where they will be painted and returned to the students to keep.

“It’s fabulous — and not expected,” Valentine said. “That’s one thing I love about it.”

Collin Hoffman developed his passion for welding during the pandemic when he worked with his grandfather at Jack’s Welding Service in Westfield. Brandon Wronski, a Fredonia student, operates welding equipment as he works on his final project. OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen.

To both Lodestro and Valentine, the barbecue grill seemed like the perfect project for students to test their skills on.

“It’s one of our most popular products. It’s an intermediate level project — not too easy, not too hard — and it’s really easy for the students to keep when they are done. We wanted them to keep it,” Lodestro said.

This is the first year of the project, which came together after a successful partnership between Jamestown Advanced and the welding program. The program provided a paid student intern to Jamestown Advanced a year ago, who was later hired upon graduation.

“If this works out well for them, their goal is to get a couple of my kids to work for them. Then we constantly keep the industry going,” Valentine said.

Jamestown Advanced currently employs 150 people between its administration building and 179,000 square-foot factory at 2855 Girts Road in Jamestown.

Kevin Valentine is the instructor of the BOCES welding course. He has 25 years of experience in the field of welding. Brandon Wronski, a Fredonia student, operates welding equipment as he works on his final project. OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen.

“As a growing local manufacturer, we’re always looking to cultivate young talent in the trades,” said Lodestro. “Partnering with E2CCB for projects like this just makes sense so we can start to build relationships with the next generation of skilled workers.”

Jamestown Advanced has continued offering paid welding internships to BOCES students this year, with the goal of helping students apply what they are learning in the classroom to a factory setting.

“It’s great working with BOCES and working with the students, they are all really hard-working,” Lodestro said. “There is a big shortage of skilled labor in our area. With programs like this, students can get a great job with us or any other factory right out of graduation, a good paying job with no college debt.”

For one student, the trade of welding is especially personal. Collin Hoffman, a senior at Westfield Academy and Central School, developed a passion for welding during the pandemic while working at his grandfather’s business, Jack’s Welding Service, in Westfield.

“I went down there for a while and learned how to weld on Wednesdays when we didn’t have school,” Hoffman said. “I love the fact that I was able to continue that and build on my experiences in his shop here to just learn more and more.”

Kevin Valentine is the instructor of the BOCES welding course. He has 25 years of experience in the field of welding. OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen.

Hoffman is a second-year welding student at BOCES, who has also attended competitions on behalf of the course. Hoffman plans to attend Alfred State College next year as part of the college’s welding program. After that, he hopes to travel while working pipe welding jobs before settling down.

“I like having the opportunity to learn all the different kinds of welding and being able to do a lot of hands-on work with it to get it all right,” Hoffman said. “It’s been fun. There’s a lot going on in the shop all the time, you never get bored. You can always find something to do.”

As the instructor of the course, Valentine will grade the students’ work on the project as their final exam. Valentine has 25 years of experience in the field, including 10 years in Silver Creek at Exelco Developments.

“I learned a lot of amazing things there, and it just goes to show you that you continually grow in your life of welding. You don’t walk out of the classroom and know it all. You’re building steps,” Valentine said. “This is a nice place for them to be introduced to it. … Not everybody is a college student, not everybody leaves this class as a welder. But if you take something from this class … whatever it is, nobody takes that away. You can get fired from a job, but you can’t get fired from a career. If you’re good at it, somebody wants you.”