Ann Arbor, Michigan — Growing up, Mikala Sposito dreamed of being a pioneer.
“I always wanted to be the first woman to do something,” she said.
This dream is about to come true.
The 21-year-old from Dexter, Michigan, will be the first woman to represent the United States as a welder at the World Skills competition in China.
Sposito, a Washtenaw Community College student, earned the coveted spot by winning the American Welding Trials in Huntsville, Alabama, earlier this year.
“It was very, very close the whole time, but I was the one who got to Shanghai,” Sposito said.
The WorldSkills competition, described as the Olympics of the skilled trades, identifies the world’s best in technical disciplines including construction, IT, manufacturing and robotics.
And of course welding.
Sposito is the sixth Washtenaw Community College student to qualify in WorldSkills history. The WCC has produced more WorldSkills welding graduates than any other school in the United States, Ann Arbor College said. One of them, Alex Baczkowski, who finished second in 2013, is Sposito’s coach and mentor.
He accompanied her to American Championships at Alabama and will also be her coach in a series of competitions that will take her from Canada to Australia in the months leading up to the WorldSkills competition in September.
Add to that the 80 hours of welding training a week at the WCC, and Sposito has a “long, hard road” ahead of her, Pazkowski said.
“But ultimately, if you succeed, it will open all kinds of doors for you,” he added.
They will be evaluated on technical execution and craftsmanship under strict time constraints and stringent international standards.
Sposito said she is looking forward to putting her skills against the best in the world. And travel abroad, which you have never done before.
As for the “first” aspect, she said: “I do not see the sexual aspect in it.”
“I mean the welding doesn’t require any brute force or anything. It’s actually very fine and precise.”
But she realizes that women represent a minority of participants in a field she fell in love with when she was 10 years old. And if its global success in joining metals together using heat and pressure helps pave the way for the welders of the future, all the better.
“To be the first woman to do this is pretty cool,” said Sposito, whose near-term goal is to earn a bachelor’s degree in welding engineering from Wayne State University in Detroit. In the long term, you may want to follow in Baszkowski’s footsteps and teach at the WCC.
Either way, she’s happy to be “an inspiration to a lot of women in the professions who may have been struggling.”