Students in the machine tool and welding class at Coloma High School have won yet another state competition. From May 11 to May 14, the kids showed off their welding skills at the Michigan Industrial Technology Education Society — or, MITES — Student Project Competition in Lansing, and for the fourth year in a row, they came back with top honors. Coloma Schools Career and Technology Education Director Cathy Haley says the students spent the whole school year designing and building an over-six-foot statue of a bear.
“They have to design their project,” Haley told WSJM. “They have to cut all of the metal, do all the welds, put it all together, and it has to be finished. We had a gun case that had part metal and part wood, and that all had to be finished. Then they have to send their plans that they had with it, and then it is judged against other students.”
At this year’s competition, Coloma High School’s bear was compared to other schools’ projects based on looks, the quality of the welds, and craftsmanship. Haley says past winning projects have included a comet and a tree, adding the school plans to donate the bear statue to the Box Factory in St. Joseph. She says the welding program at Coloma High School, which has been around for several decades, is an excellent way for students to get some early career training.
