Andrea Saguilan-Marin was 15 when her mother was deported to Mexico. The family took a huge emotional hit with her departure. The loss also put an extra burden on the family’s finances. Andrea started helping her father, who has a house painting business. As a sophomore at Bingham High School, she had also started to take an interest in welding.
Fast forward three years, and Andrea, now 18 and a welding student at Salt Lake Community College, wrote an essay in November detailing her family’s struggles and her need for financial help with college for her application to win a Utah Steel Fabricators Association (USFA) 2020 Scholarship. Andrea recently learned she was one of eight SLCC welding students to win the $3,500 scholarship – only 10 were available.
“I was jumping up and down when I found out,” Andrea says about hearing via email she received a scholarship. “I ran out in the hall to tell another student. It means so much. It’s just a weight lifted off of my father. The money will go right back into school. Sometimes, it just feels like you can never get a break, and now this feels like, man, that’s one win.”
Frank Buckler, an assistant welding professor at SLCC’s state-of-the-industry Westpointe Workforce Training & Education Center, has a sign on the wall at school that asks in red marker the simple question, “Do you want $3,500?” “You can’t be more clear,” Frank says. “The money helps them finish – and we need students to complete their programs.” He and other instructors in the welding department cheer loud and often for going after scholarships. “Once you’re in here, you’re a new breed of citizen,” he says. “You’re a college student, and you can actually ask people for money. Just about everything you touch has a scholarship opportunity attached to it.”
The message is clear to Ayden Anderson, 20, a Brighton High School graduate who has won the USFA scholarship twice. Ayden works part time as a caregiver and thought before the scholarship came along that it would take longer than two years to finish. “Frank let us know, if you want some money, here you go,” Ayden says. “I absolutely needed it.”
Ayden injured his back a few years ago while enjoying the outdoors. He needed surgery, and it was expensive. “I could barely afford to pay for the first semester of tuition,” he says about winning the scholarship last year. “That was a game changer for me, to continue my education into the next semester. Frank has always taught us, there is nothing wrong with asking for help.”
Andrea and Ayden love working with their hands. Frank has noticed how devotion to detail in painting houses has helped Andrea’s skills grow as a welder, and he notes that female students tend to pay attention and follow important welding rules better, traits that contribute to females often outperforming their male counterparts.
Both students say SLCC was already the most affordable option for school and that the scholarships mean they will graduate with little or no financial burden. Frank points out that the welding industry is “booming” right now and that jobs starting at $20 per hour await SLCC grads. And the scholarship winners, he adds, already have an “in” with the USFA. “They gave you money,” he says.
More information about SLCC’s welding programs can be found here and here.
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