Area student to compete in national welding competition

Jacob Miller, a first-year welding student at ASU-Heber Springs, will compete in the American Welding Society U.S. Invitational Weld Trials Saturday through Nov. 14 in Atlanta.
Jacob Miller, a first-year welding student at ASU-Heber Springs, will compete in the American Welding Society U.S. Invitational Weld Trials Saturday through Nov. 14 in Atlanta.

HEBER SPRINGS — Jacob Miller is getting ready to light his torch and compete for a chance to represent the United States in the international WorldSkills Welding Competition this month, but this accomplishment means more than just a trophy and bragging rights. He is working to make an impact on his family after his mother was in a devastating automobile accident.

Miller, who has been welding since 10th grade, is a first-year welding student at Arkansas State University-Heber Springs, a satellite campus of ASU-Beebe. The ASU-Heber Springs Welding Program is located in the John L. Latimer Skills Training Center.

Miller graduated from West Side High School in Greers Ferry this past May, where he finished within the top three spots in the Arkansas in Welding competition for three years, including a gold-medal performance earlier this year.

“I fell in love with it,” he said. “I really worked at it to hone my skills and start competing. It took off from there.”

In May, Miller started working for Forge Point Manufacturing, where he welds and fabricates transportation trailers for clients in the trucking industry. He worked five days a week in the summer and now works two days a week while he’s in school. He is working hard to be able to take care of himself and his mother, Pam, after she was in an accident last year. She no longer has movement in her legs or hands. Her injuries are severe enough that she now lives in a long-term care facility.

Jacob has taken up the responsibility of maintaining the family home and paying the bills.

“He’s been paying all of the bills,” said Thomas “Tag” Green, instructor of welding at ASU-Heber Springs. “Since she went to long-term care, he’s had to pay the bills, plus train, plus go to school. Academically, he’s sound. He’s a unique student.”

His mother is doing well, and Miller said her attitude is inspirational.

“Her spirits are high,” he said. “She’s doing great.”

Miller will be in Atlanta Saturday through Nov. 14 to compete in the American Welding Society U.S. Invitational Weld Trials. He will be competing against five other welders, and the top three from the competition will go on to compete in the AWS Society TeamUSA Finals.

The welder who comes out with the gold medal from those finals will represent the United States at the WorldSkills Welding Competition will receive up to $1,000 in AWS publications, a four-year AWS membership and a $40,000 four-year scholarship from the AWS Foundation and the Miller Electric Manufacturing Company.

Competitors will have several different projects and be given 22 hours to complete those projects at the competition. Miller said he will receive a print with all of the project elements and will then be responsible for crafting and assembling the finished pieces within the time limit.

“There are going to be five other guys down there [at the U.S. Invitational] who are going to be prepared,” Miller said. “It’s not about being the best welder. It’s about being the best welder that day. You’ve got to give it your all and go into it physically and mentally prepared to do what you’ve got to do.”

Green said that at the state level, Miller had to pass a general knowledge test and complete an interview. Since he is part of SkillsUSA, he also had to take a specified SkillsUSA knowledge test. After the state competition, he went up against 47 competitors before he earned a spot in the U.S. Invitational.

ASU-Heber Springs has sent three welding students to the U.S. Invitational, including current ASU-Heber Springs instructor of welding Aaron Carr.

Carr came in fourth place at the U.S. Invitational when he participated — just shy of a chance to continue. He went on to earn his bachelor’s degree and now instructs and trains welders at school that taught him.

“You have to go into it with the most focus and attention that you can,” he said of the competition. “Twenty-two hours is going to seem like a really long time when you get started, but it’s going to feel like 30 minutes when you get closer to the end. Every move you make has got to be a planned move working toward the end goal.”

Miller is one domino in a chain reaction of accomplished welders that reaches back to Green’s instruction.

Green has been teaching at ASU-Heber Springs since 2004, and the first student he met in the adult learning program was Randy Carr. When Randy Carr got his welding certifications, he started working at West Side School District, where he taught Aaron Carr, Jacob Miller and Dillon Thomas, the other ASU-Heber Springs graduate who competed in the world trials.

“It’s kind of neat for me to see one of my former students training guys at his program, and he’s also an adjunct instructor for us,” Green said. “I’ve been at ASU for 11 years, and the impact we’ve had on the community and the state is hard for me to believe.”

The relationship between the ASU-Heber Springs program and the local community has shown brightly through the support for Miller’s competition, Green said. It takes a lot of time and resources to train and send a student to the world trials, and the list of “thank yous” that Green is compiling continues to grow.

“From my standpoint as an instructor, it’s been neat to see Cleburne County — not just right here in Heber Springs, but the county as a whole — everybody has been behind Jacob,” Green said, “whether it means paying his electric bill or giving him gas money or giving him supplies.”

Miller will finish at ASU-Heber Springs in May 2016, and he is considering pursuing a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Whether or not he goes on for his bachelor’s or jumps right into work is a decision he has yet to make, but he will always have the option of welding for a living.

“Welding is definitely going to always be there for me,” he said.

Staff writer Angela Spencer can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or aspencer@arkansasonline.com.

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