SAUK VALLEY BUSINESS JOURNAL
PAGE 12 SUMMER 2009
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SVCC welding graduates
on the hunt for jobs
BY CHASE CASTLE
SAUK VALLEY NEWSPAPERS
Maria Magana may seem an unlikely candidate to
be a professional welder: She's 21, has a 9-month-
old baby and is joining a work force that's over-
whelmingly male.
Yet those things that seem like detriments actually
might be assets.
Magana was introduced to welding around age 16,
when her dad, Steve Magana, would take her to
work while he did welding or electrical work.
"A lot of people got weirded-out that he had his
daughter there," she recalled. "It was kind of a bond
we had. I've always been more of a daddy's girl."
Magana took welding classes at Sauk Valley Com-
munity College and became a certified welder in
May.
Now she's hunting for work in a field where persist-
ence and poise are required.
"That's why some men say women are better
welders," Magana said. "Because they have more
patience."
The Sauk program was challenging, she said.
"It was kind of a hard time," Magana said of her
classes, particularly a welding course that empha-
sized how to balance � no easy task when you're sev-
eral months' pregnant. "But I did it, and actually
passed that class with really good grades, so that was
really cool."
Although enrollment in the welding program is
steady, area employment prospects are sketchy at
the moment.
Last fall, Magana was assigned work at Menk USA
in Sterling through a temp agency, which set up the
equivalent of a paid internship to be fulfilled along-
side her classes.
That made for an "awesome" experience, she said;
Although the program at Sauk was rigorous, it
couldn't replace on-the-job training.
"A lot of the guys there took me under their wing
and showed me everything. Sauk, the schooling,
helps get you there, but it really doesn't put you in a
factory."
In April, Magana's job was cut. So she's sent appli-
cations off to several employers, many around Clin-
ton, Iowa.
Her experience isn't unique.
Welding instructor Scott Gillihan oversees most of
Sauk's program.
The school doesn't yet formally track what hap-
pens to its welding graduates, but Gillihan estimates
the number of graduates who get hired at around 70
percent.
"There are a lot of people that came through class-
es and got jobs," Gillihan said. "It all depends, really,
on where they're willing to go."
One woman shares her challenges breaking into the field

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