ReEducate, ReEngineer, ReTool

The WMIA Scholarship Foundation awarded nine $2,000 scholarships in 2006 to students seeking careers in wood technology, machinery and related fields. These talented students were selected based on academic success, interests and special abilities. This year's recipients are:

Matthew Andreasian graduated from Salinas High School in California and plans to attend California State University, Chico, majoring in construction management. In April 2006, he placed first in the California SkillsUSA-VICA state contest for cabinetmaking. In June, he represented California in the nationwide contest, in which he competed against 43 other students in a rigorous eight-hour event that included making a materials list, planning cuts and constructing a small two-piece cabinet with a drawer and a door. He placed third in that competition. Matthew also works part-time at a cabinet shop, where he builds bathroom vanities, kitchen cabinets and other specialty furniture. One day, he hopes to own his own cabinet shop.

Tom Bagby will be entering his senior year at Pittsburg State University this fall.  In May 2007, he will graduate with a degree in Wood Technology and an emphasis in Wood Product Manufacturing. Before college, he enrolled and participated in a mechanical process class at Remington High School. The course taught Tom through many types of manufacturing, including metalwork, plastics and woodworking, which led him to pursue woodworking at Pittsburg State. Since then, he have built many different types of furniture and will intern with Imperial Woodworking in Palatine, Ill., this summer.

David Fales says the class he enjoyed most in high school was ROP Wood Shop, where he gained an appreciation for both woodworking and teaching — both careers he’s considering for his future.  Since high school, he has earned an associate’s degree in Mill Cabinetry from Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif., and set up a wood shop in his brother’s garage, where he is building kitchen cabinets.  This fall, he will begin coursework in construction management at California State University, Chico. Five years after graduation, he sees himself either settled as a woodshop teacher and shop owner or working his way up in the residential construction world.

Ryan Larson will be a senior at Pittsburg State University this fall. He is pursuing a degree in wood technology with an emphasis in wood product manufacturing and a minor in business. Ryan first began to appreciate woodworking while working with his grandfather on the weekends. After taking a few high school shop and technology classes, he began to consider woodworking as a career. Last summer, he interned at Jefferson Millwork and Design in Sterling, Va. Ryan won a 2005 WMIA scholarship, too.

Kelly M. Palmer earned an associate’s degree from Thaddeus Steven’s College of Technology in Lancaster, Penn., where she majored in Cabinet Making and Wood Technology.  This fall, she will attend Millersville University for Technology Education.  After graduation, she plans to begin a career as a high school Industrial Arts teacher, specializing in woodworking.

Alex Pearson has loved working with his hands ever since he took his first wood shop class at the age of 8. This love was further developed through a high school woodshop program and Alex’s participation in both the Junior and Senior WoodLINKS program. These programs led Alex to a job at the local plywood mill doing cleanup work, where he continued learning until he was accepted into UBC. After his first year of school, he returned to the plywood mill and spent the summer working in quality control. Now, Alex is completing his first co-op at a sawmill in Williams Lake, after which he hopes to work for an OSB mill in order to round out his primary sector experience. Alex hopes to eventually work with engineered wood products or in mill management.

Corey Rader has successfully completed two years at the University of Rio Grande, Ohio.  He is majoring in Fine Woodworking and studying the art of 18^th century and reproduction style furniture making.  Corey built two cherry Shaker night stands and one walnut Philadelphia lowboy with hand-carved cabriole legs and hand-carved ball and claw feet his first year. He also completed an 18^th century gooseneck style Pennsylvania secretary desk this year.  Corey is on the Dean’s Honors List and was named to the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society and The National Dean’s List.  He is a 2004 graduate of Monroe Central High School in Woodsfield, Ohio.  His hobbies are hunting and fishing.

Dan Roethle grew up in a small agricultural/manufacturing community in Wisconsin. His interest in woodworking began in sixth grade when his neighbor introduced him to woodturning. By the time he was enrolled in high school, he was able to pursue this interest by taking every “wood-related” course available. While he was exposed to both the construction and forestry aspect of woodworking, he found his real passion in his Wood Products courses, which taught the manufacturing processes of furniture and cabinet making. Under the knowledgeable guidance of Mr. Jason Kraus, some of his finer accomplishments have included a bathroom vanity, mission style end table, and, just recently, a rocking chair. Throughout his senior year in high school, he worked at a local cabinet shop as an intern, where he made cabinets and solid surface countertops. Dan is looking forward to his future in the wood industry and has chosen Virginia Tech to get him there.

Thomas W. Tuck, III began his woodworking career his junior year in high school, where he earned a WoodLINKS certification and became a two-time finalist in the 2003 AWFS Student Design Competition. Thomas is now entering his senior year at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., where he is majoring in Industrial Technology with concentrations in Furniture Studies and Business Management. In the summer of 2005, Thomas spent 10 weeks in Holland, Mich., working as an intern for Great Lake Woods, where he learned the woods manufacturing process from beginning to end. Some of his many awards include the 2004, 2005 and 2006 WoodLINKS/AWFS scholarship, as well as the 2005-2006 American Home Furnishing Alliance Scholarship.  During the summer of 2007, he will spend my summer working with AWFS in Commerce, Calif., where he will be working directly with the Student Design Competition and the College of Woodworking Knowledge.