Growing up, my dad was often absent during my childhood. This wasn’t because he didn’t care, but because he was working tirelessly to provide for our family at a young age. Despite his absence, I never felt unloved or uncared for. My father instilled in me the values of hard work and doing things to the best of my abilities. Hi, my name is Delaney Jostad, and I am 18 years old. I am applying for this scholarship to help me pursue my dream of becoming a welder. Both of my parents were incredibly hard workers and always hands-on, which inspired me to seek a hands-on career myself. I explored various opportunities in STEM and trades, but nothing clicked until I discovered welding. In my first year of high school, my older brother advised me to take a class with our automotive/trades teacher. I was nervous, but I knew this would be a fantastic opportunity. I enrolled in the first WAE class, which included welding, automotive, and electricity. From the moment I picked up a welder gun, I was hooked. I found myself getting lost in my work, eagerly anticipating that class every day. I had found my passion. I soon got a job in my hometown as a bookkeeper for Iron Ram Fabrication, a metals shop. A year later, I found myself spending more time in the shop than at the computer, and my boss asked if I wanted to become a welder. I jumped at the chance, and since my sophomore year, I have been an apprentice welder. I’ve taken every welding class I could in high school, determined to become the best welder possible. Welding isn’t just a job for me—it’s my calling. I applied and was accepted into the Advanced Welding Institute (AWI) in Eagle River, Wisconsin, for this fall. This six-month, fully hands-on program is highly respected and promises to enhance my welding skills significantly. I’ve heard nothing but praise from instructors and past students, and I am excited for this next step in my journey. Initially, I considered underwater welding until I learned about its impact on life expectancy. I then turned to pipe welding, attracted by the opportunity to travel. However, the more I researched, the less appealing it became. One slow day at work, a man came into Iron Ram Fabrications to see my boss. He was an old friend who worked for General Dynamics, and we struck up a conversation. He shared stories about his job and the incredible travels he experienced. His passion and experiences gave me a clear vision of what I want to pursue in the welding industry. I am determined to follow this path with all my heart. This scholarship will not only help me achieve my dream but also honor the hard work and sacrifices of my parents. Thank you for considering my application.

Growing up my dad was always working to keep food on the counter and a roof over our head. I had an older brother and a stay-at-home mom. I know my family did everything they could to keep going, and I will always be grateful for that. But that doesn't mean it was easy for my parents. I'm lucky enough to have grown up with two very loving and caring parents, lived in the country where I could be outside all the time, and had a mother who was always looking for ways to keep us interested and happy. Now that I'm older looking back at my childhood now that I'm a senior, I realize that my mother was always struggling. Yes, my dad was working hard to give us a better life and still, to this day, making sure we are living well even when there's a struggle, but my mother was struggling in a different way as well. My mother had very bad depression and anxiety when both my brother and I were younger. She'd try to hide it the best she could, but I know why she liked having 20 minutes at least of outdoor time. Those 20 minutes, she kept to yourself to let herself breathe for a little bit before she had to suck it up and deal with two little kids. Yes, the 20 minutes usually ended up being over an hour because of how much my brother and I loved the outdoors, but she needed that little time to keep going for us. Or when Dad couldn't make it home at his normal time, and I would sneak downstairs for something, I would hear her crying or just standing with her eyes closed, breathing deeply. Every day, I knew it was a struggle for my mother to take care of my brother and me and then, during the summer, take on other kids to babysit. While my father worked hard every day into the night, my mother worked hard to fight against her depression and anxiety my whole life to make sure my brother and I were cared for. Both my parents were young when they had us, but they cared about us better than anyone could have. Because of these two amazing role models, I have and will always feel loved and cared for, no matter what. I know others have it worse, but I know getting just some money for my after-school plans will help my family rest a little easier, knowing I have some money that's not going to be weighing me out in the future.

My name is Delaney Jostad, and I plan to go into the welding field. I chose this field because I love to be able to make things with my own hands and since I started fabricating, my passion only grew. Over my high school career, I have taken high school metal classes which helped me strengthen my skills in welding and helped me with my job. Also throughout my time in high school, I have kept a steady job at Iron Ram Fabrication, which is a welding shop in my hometown. At work and in my metal classes, my love for welding grew. I love figuring out what is needed and seeing a project come together. So because of all the happiness and pride this had given me, I chose to go into it. My plans for right now are to go to AWI, Advanced Welding Institute. It's a six-month program where I will get lots of hands-on time to learn and practice welding while earning certifications. I will be going full-time and will need to 40 hours a week like a job. As for right now, I'm not sure what type of welding I want to get a job in afterward, but I'm leaning more into going into pipeline work. I'm thinking this because it will give me the chance to travel and make a difference. I love my home, but I don't want to stay my whole life and let opportunities fly past me. I will be successful in this trade because I believe I think outside the box, and I'm not afraid to try new things. I know if what I do fails, I'm not the type to let that knock me down. I am the type to get back on my feet again and to try over and over. To me, success looks very different. It's not about the money, even though it would help. It's about the memories and the expires I'll take away from my life. Being able to learn and in the future teach others to help them succeed. Being successful in life now looks like, being able to have the freedom to do what you love in life. One of the biggest role models in my life is my father because of what he made of his life. He loves farming so he created a business in agriculture. But also has the freedom to see the States on his part runs or can take a weekend to go on an ATV ride with friends and family. He has grown a family and provided for everyone in my family every day. So the older I get, I pray I can be as lucky in life to live such a rich life as my father.

My name is Delaney Jostad. I'm an 18-year-old female pursuing a career in welding. Always been a hands-on worker, wanting to help. My father started a business called Jostad Dragline Services. It's a manure application business where we would take cow manure from farmers' slurries, pump it through pumps, and dragline hoses onto fields. So my dad was gone a lot. But my brother and I would always try to go out and help him on farms or go on any part runs until we were old enough to work, then we would work as much as possible with him. Being around my father showed me where hard work gets you in life. So once I got older, I got a job at Iron Ram Fabrications in my freshmen year of high school. This is where I started welding, and I loved it. After my first year working there, my boss offered me a welding apprenticeship, and I took it with no hesitation. I continued to work there every day after school. And during school, I took as many metal classes as I could. Now as a senior, I have taken all the metal classes and become a teacher's assistant, while doing my Youth Apprenticeship classes, which allows me to leave early to go to work. What stands out when thinking of a time I thought outside the box and solved a problem was when I was working for Jostad Dragline Services. I was 16-years-old and working at a customer farm at night when an equipment malfunction led to a manure spill. In any circumstance, this is bad, but in this case, it was extremely terrible because a creek was 120 yards away from the spill. Manure is filled with nutrients and is safe and a healthier choice to put onto fields. But it has a lot of phosphorus, nitrogen, and pathogens which is not good for running water. This can pollute the water supply making it unsafe. When I got to the spill, coworkers and I were trying to find where the manure was running to. I soon found it by falling into the manure. I followed it to the creek and found a title line, which no one was aware of, running into the creek. With this title line, the manure has a straight path into the water. I plugged the line with leaves and a plastic bag, stopping the flow of manure. By this time the DNR was already notified about the spill. They had told my boss they were very pleased with the quick thinking and quick response to the clean-up. My boss explained to me that with my quick thinking, I prevented an environmental hazard that could have hurt our business a lot. Another example is first teaching a student how to weld. He was a foreign exchange student from Switzerland and wanted to learn how to stick weld. I showed him how I do it, then he tried, but it didn't go well. From there I explained to him that he couldn't go too fast or it won't arc, but if he went too slow it'll stick. We turned the welder off first to try to get a good speed before welding. I talked to him about speed, angling the stick, and how he should hold it. He soon got it and loved welding for the time he was here. Another example was when I was welding the supporting beams in an enclosed trailer. It was my first time reading blueprints so that's where I had to figure it out. Plans after high school, first I already got accepted into a welding program called AWI, Advanced Welding Institute. It's a six-month accelerated program in Eagle River Wisconsin. I chose this school because it's more hands-on training than other programs in my area. While I’m there, I will be living in a housing where I will learn how to live on my own. I’ll be going to class as if it was a job. And then after school, I plan on getting a job also so I can stay stable. After school, some employers look at the students just from AWI, but also lists of job opportunities provided by the school to look over and get. I do not know what type of welding I would like to go into, so in my program, I’ll be excited to see what I’m best at. I would have you call my boss Andrew Molling. He would say that I should be recommended for this scholarship because I’m hard-working and very dedicated to my work. I love to learn more to fully understand what is needed and expected of me. He would say I’m the type to measure twice and cut once, so I know it’s right.

My name is Delaney Jostad. I am an 18-year-old female pursuing a welding profession. In this field, you need a lot of patience. Growing up with an older brother who always needed to be the smartest, best, and better than me at everything, I have gained a lot of patience when things do not go the right way. He has shown me that there is always another way if you look hard enough, and when it comes to my welding I have a lot of patience. Especially when the plans do not go how I thought they would. Patience will also help when in a difficult or different learning space. For example, I plan to attend AWI, Advanced Welding Institute, at Eagle River Wisconsin in the fall of 2024. I will have to move out of my childhood home and move away from everyone I know. This will not only test my patience on how moving and adjusting goes but also test my level-headedness. Keeping calm during stressful situations is very important for any industry, but especially in the trade world which keeps the world turning. But I love welding and will be ready for all the curveballs thrown my way. Welding grabbed my attention after my 8th-grade automotive class. I realized that auto was not for me, but I love working with my hands and creating, and I always wanted to help my dad when our farm equipment breaks during our pumping season. We have a family business where we pump manure out of farmers' slurries and put it on their fields. During or after our season, usually, one or two pumps are leaking and need to be welded up. I could help my dad fix that instead of my other coworkers trying to fix it and it and then it breaks again. Besides wanting to help, in my freshmen year, I got a job at a fabrication shop and took my very first metals class. Since all of this was during COVID-19, I did not get a chance to weld at all in school but I did get to weld at Iron Ram Fabrications. There I learned more about welding then I did in any of my metal classes in school. I also was offered a welding appretionship and glady took it. Since the first time welding, I knew that is what I wanted to do when I grow up. And that is what I plan on doing.

My name is Delaney Jostad and I am an 18-year-old female going into the field of welding. I am hoping that this scholarship will help take away some pressure about the price of my schooling off my shoulders. I am already enrolled in AWI, Advanced Welding Institute, in Eagle River, Wisconsin which is four hours away from my hometown. It is a six month, hands on accelerated program where I will be learning a combination of structural and pipe welding. The cost of schooling is $30,000 which includes tuition itself at $21,000, materials provided costing $4,000, then PPE that is paid by the student (full cost of safe clothing uniform is around $300), and housing ($800 a month for six months- $4,800), but does not include gas, to drive to school and a job that I will get during school, or food. Before I start my program in the fall of 2024, I am and have been saving as much money as possible by working at Iron Ram Fab, Jostad Dragline Services, and helping as much as I can at family farms in the summer with hay. Jostad Dragline Services is our family business which is a seasonal manure application business, taking cow manure from farmers' slurry pits onto their fields by using pumps and dragline, and Iron Ram Fabrications is a metals shop where I have a welding apprenticeship and have been working since I was 15 years old. I have done many projects there. For example, I have worked on over 150 enclosed air-conditioned trailers which was a government project for the military that helped transport the fallen soldiers. I have also helped with multiple custom railing for homes and different companies. I am also applying for many scholarships and grants to help cover my program's cost. With any financial aid I may receive, I can lower my chances of needing student loans and collecting debt. This will be extremely helpful because once I am out in the workforce, I can focus on saving money for my career. Such as a welder, PPE (welding helmet, Fireproof clothes, steel toe boots), and tools. Then also I can work on saving money for my own home, and hopefully in the future to start a family with money saved up. This will allow me to provide a level of care and comfort to my family that I would not be able to give with student loans and collecting debt.

My name is Delaney Jostad, I'm an 18-year-old female pursuing a welding profession. I have been passionate about welding since my freshmen year in high school. During my first year in high school, COVID-19 was in its prime. All my classes were online and over Zoom, including "Welding, Aviation, and Engineering" which was supposed to be my very first welding class. During this, I was lucky to get a job at IRF Industrial Supplies. My boss, Andrew Molling, had another business next door called Iron Ram Fabrications. During my time at IRF, I was 15 years old and could not drive myself home yet. After I was done with entering parts into QuickBooks, I went over to the fabrication shop. That is where I first learned to weld. Later, Andrew offered me an apprenticeship position and I took it. I learned how to weld and once COVID-19 was over I had more experience than my classmates. From there on, I took as many metal classes as possible while also working at Iron Ram Fabrications. Now in my senior year, I have taken all the metal classes I could. But to keep my Youth Apprenticeship through my high school, which allows me to leave school early to go to my job, I have to have a class that corresponds with my Youth Apprenticeship/job. This has led me to become a Teacher's Assistant, helping students through their metal projects. My plans for the future are very open. I'm already enrolled in AWI, Advanced Welding Institute in Eagle River, Wisconsin. It is a six-month, accelerated program where I will be learning a combination of structural and pipe welding. The cost of schooling is $30,000 which includes tuition, materials, PPE, and housing, but does not include gas or food. Before I start my program in the fall of 2024, I'm saving as much money as possible. While working at Iron Ram Fab, and Jostad Dragline Services, our family business which is a seasonal manure application business, I'm also applying for many scholarships and grants to help me cover the cost. I'm excited to find out where I excel so I can have a clearer path of what branch of welding I would like to go into. One of the scariest moments I had to overcome was while I was working with JDS. I was 16 years old, I was working at a customer farm at night when we had an equipment malfunction that led to a manure spill. In any circumstance, this is bad, but in this case, it was extremely terrible because a creek was 120 yards away from the spill. Manure is filled with nutrients and is safe and a healthier choice to put onto fields. But it has a lot of phosphorus, nitrogen, and pathogens which is not good for running water. This can pollute the water supply making it unsafe. When I got to the spill, coworkers and I were trying to find where the manure was running to. I soon found it by falling into the manure. I followed it to the creek and found a title line, which no one was aware of, running into the creek. With this title line, the manure has a straight path into the water. I plugged the line, stopping the flow of manure. By this time the DNR was notified about the spill. They were very pleased with the quick thinking and quick response to the clean-up. My boss explained to me that with my quick thinking, I prevented an environmental hazard.

My name is Delaney Jostad and I am an 18-year-old female going into the career of welding. Throughout my 18 years of life, I have always wanted to help and learn. I tried my best to always go to my blue-collar father's jobs with him when he worked at A1 Advanced Plumbing as a septic and liquid waste removal service. When he and my mother started our own business called Jostad Dragline Services where we did manuer applications onto farmers' fields from their slurry pits where the cow manure is stored. I always did my best to help, but being a little girl at the time, I was mostly helpful in pulling rope through a culver to help get the dragline hose under the road to get to the field we needed to apply on. But as I got older, I wanted to be able to help more with everything. In 8th grade, I took an auto class and learned how to do oil changes, brake changes, and how to properly detain a car. All these I could have learned from my older brother or my father, even my mother. I wanted to learn how to do something special that my family could not do. So the start of high school I took my first welding class. But my freshmen year was during the outbreak of COVID-19 so I did not get to weld my first semester of school. But during this time, I also got a job at a metal shop right in town called Iron Ram Fabractions. There was where I first how to weld, and loved it. Throughout working there, I have learned so much that I took into my metal classes at school and did great. There I built great relationships with my boss and coworkers, and overall a great support system to support me wanting to have a career in welding. So in the future, I can see myself in many different places. I can see myself with my welding rig, hauling my equipment to help fix farm equipment. Sometimes I can see myself traveling and working on the pipelines or water towers all over the United States, and sometimes I can see myself coming back to a place like Iron Ram Fab where you never know what today is going to bring you. But even though I do not see a defined place for me yet in this industry, I know I am going to be able to do great things after my schooling. But soon, I am planning on going to school at AWI, Advanced Welding Institute, in Eagle River Wisconsin. This is a six-month welding program that with tuition, housing, and PPE costs almost $30,000 and I am trying everything to help me get through the program.

I have always wanted to help. My family is a very blue-collar nuclear family. My mother was a stay-at-home mom with me and my older brother while my dad worked hard every day, weekend, and a lot of holidays to keep us warm and healthy. In my younger years, I hardly got to see my dad besides at 4:00 a.m. or if he woke me up at odd hours at night. But my family was always grateful, knowing he was out working at A1 Advanced Plumbing as a septic and liquid waste removal service in West Salem, Wisconsin. But my older brother always got to help and go with my father on trips, while I stayed in with my mother. But the older I got, the more I wanted to be able to do things on my own and help my family. I started going along with my father when he started our family business, Jostad Dragline Services- which is where we apply manure onto fields from farmers' slurry pits that are filled with usually cow manure. I naturally started helping out a lot more. But being the only female and the youngest on site, made me want to prove myself. So during 8th grade, I took my first autos class and felt it was not for me, but in high school, I took all the welding classes I could so I also could help when equipment needed to be fixed. But now I am a senior, and I have to become a Teacher's Assistant just to take the classes I have already done because I have already taken all the classes given. In my freshmen year of high school during COVID-19, I got my first real job working in a fabrication shop in town called Iron Ram Fabrication. There I found my love for welding. From there, I took all that I had learned, showed it in the classroom during my metal classes, and finally, I was able to help my father in a way my brother and other coworkers could not. Throughout high school, I have always loved welding, so I decided I wanted to pursue a career in welding. This scholarship will help me achieve my dreams by helping me through the welding program that I have already been accepted into. It is $25,000 for tuition and materials, but that does not include housing, personal gear, or PPE. Housing for the whole time would be around $4,800 and personal gear and PPE would be around $300. Together my schooling will cost close to $30,000. I have been applying for scholarships and grants heavily since I got accepted into AWI, Advanced Welding Institute, in Eagle River Wisconsin in the hope of taking some of the stress and worry that the money has caused my family. My family has taught me how to work hard and that is exactly what I plan on doing to win and be awarded as much money as I can to help me through my schooling and to start my career as a female welder.