Steering students toward manufacturing

Victoria Erickson placed a welding helmet on her head and slid her hands into a pair of safety gloves, eager for her turn to practice soldering at Ridgewater College.

“I love it,” she said after she finished.

Erickson, 15, a sophomore at LeSueur-Henderson High School, began learning about welding this past year after enrolling in her school’s welding program. She said she likes “the hands-on experience. It’s really entertaining.”

Erickson was one of about 165 area high school students who attended Ridgewater College’s Manufacturing Expo April 6 in Hutchinson.

Tammy Jablonski, a machine tool technology instructor who helped organize Ridgewater’s sixth annual Manufacturing Expo, said she was pleased with the larger-than-expected crowd of students from Glencoe-Silver Lake, Hutchinson, Litchfield, Kimball and LeSueur-Henderson high schools.

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