When Thurston Swarthout was 15, he moved to Vermont from Texas. He went from living with his dad in the sprawling Texas suburbs, where there were houses all around and there was something going on 24/7, to Hartford, Vermont, where it was pitch black in town by 6 p.m. most nights. “It was kind of shocking,” Thurston recalls.
Now 19, Thurston says a quieter life was just what he needed at that time. Before leaving Texas, he’d recently lost his beloved older brother and was “starting to get involved in some not-so-great things.” Based on where several of his Texas friends are now, Thurston believes if he’d stayed in that environment, things would have gotten much worse.
“But now,” he says, “I’m a productive person.” Thurston is participating in a VSAC program that has helped him pursue training to become a welder, a passion that was sparked by his late older brother.
Despite being happy to be in Vermont, Thurston still wasn’t thrilled about being in school. He admits he had “senioritis” all the way through his last two years of high school at Hartford Tech, with one big exception: Mr. Speer’s Industrial Mechanics and Welding class. Carl Speer made a deep impression on Thurston, who fondly remembers his big white beard, the way he laughed, the way he talked to students, and the way he teared up on the last day of class. “He was such a great guy, always willing to teach you anything. He wanted to see you go further. He loved everybody in that class,” Thurston says. And it wasn’t just Mr. Speer—Thurston felt supported by the administration too, recalling that the principal talked to him like an adult and helped him begin to see real opportunity in pursuing a career in a tech field.
While in high school, Thurston started doing side work for people, fixing cars or small engines, and he spent a year working as a mechanic. He discovered that the kind of work he enjoyed at school was also the kind of work he liked in real life. He remembers one repair job on a 2012 Honda Fit. It had a rough hole in the bottom, but Thurston knew he could make it stronger. He designed a brace for it, drawing, measuring, and making sure everything would fit. And it did. “It’s not only fixing a problem,” says Thurston, “it’s making sure it doesn’t happen again.”
And so, when a recruiter from a welding school in Maine visited Hartford Tech, Thurston was all ears. He applied, got accepted, and was preparing to move to Maine when the school suddenly shut down. Discouraged yet motivated, Thurston started looking for similar opportunities closer to home. That’s when he found Advanced Welding Institute (AWI) in Burlington, a school that offers accelerated, hands-on welding education. Thurston calls the timing “divine intervention,” in part because learning about AWI coincided with learning about VSAC.
Out of curiosity, Thurston had signed up to meet with a VSAC counselor visiting Hartford to share grant and loan opportunities with students. Thurston wasn’t sure about continuing his education after high school, but his meeting with VSAC Education Counselor Stacey King changed that. Stacey’s work through VSAC’s Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) typically connects her with adults seeking to continue their education, but she’s also in a great position to work with high-school-age students like Thurston who are looking for career paths in the trades. When she met with Thurston, Stacey told him about multiple grants he could apply for that would support a technical education, including the Vermont Trades Forgivable Loan, administered by VSAC. Thurston recalls Stacey saying, “If you stay in Vermont, this is all paid for.” And, after finding AWI, staying in Vermont was exactly what Thurston planned to do.
Today, Thurston is almost finished with AWI’s six-month Combination Structural and Pipe Welding Program, which prepares students for entry-level positions in bridge construction, fabrication of structural components, heating plants, pipe line welding and other job shop applications. The full-time program is intense: Thurston’s cohort started with 20-22 students, and now it’s down to 16.
After he finishes his training, Thurston anticipates it will be easy to find work. When he calls area shops to let them know he’ll be graduating soon, he often hears that isn’t fast enough. Shops need help right now, which isn’t surprising. According to the American Welding Society, the United States will face a shortage of about 360,000 welders by 2027. In addition, growing the number of people trained in trades is a strategic workforce development objective for Vermont.
Thurston is ready to step into that gap, and Stacey is at his side helping him figure out how. The two talk about opportunities, possibilities, and concrete next steps. While Thurston knows no one will be quite like Mr. Speer, he’d like to work and learn under a mentor as he gains experience and builds his resume.
Thurston’s journey has had both unexpected and chosen turning points, and he recognizes from watching his family and others that life will likely continue that way. “I know that whatever situation I’m thrown into or put myself in, I can do well, and I don’t want to get too comfortable in any one spot. There’s so much to do in this field, all over the world, and not enough young, capable and skilled workers willing to crawl into 300° boilers and awkward uncomfortable spaces,” he says, noting that much of the welding workforce is aging out.
Day by day, Thurston’s willing to tackle it all. He says welding offers him more than a way to make a living; it’s also given him a way to see the world. In the midst of chaos—whether that’s a loud shop or a loud mind—welding provides stillness and focus. “In the shop, someone is always using the grinder or lighting something on fire,” Thurston says, “but as soon as you drop your hood down and strike your arc, it goes dark. It’s just quiet. All you know, all you’re focused on, is this little ball of light and molten metal.” And, for someone who has a lot on his mind, that singular focus is a good thing.
This story is produced by Vermont Student Assistance Corp., created by the Vermont Legislature in 1965 as a public nonprofit agency, to advocate for Vermont students and their families to ensure that they achieve their education goals. Our vision is to create opportunities for all Vermont students, but particularly for those—of any age—who believe that the doors to higher education are closed to them. We begin by helping families save for education with Vermont’s state-sponsored 529 savings program. To help Vermonters plan and pay for college or career training, our counselors work with students in nearly every Vermont middle school and high school, and again as adults. Our grant and scholarship programs attract national recognition, and our loan programs and loan forgiveness programs are saving Vermont families thousands of dollars in interest. Visit vsac.org to learn more.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Welding school helps young adult forge stable career path from a spark of interest.