Latinas Welding Guild molding futures students never imagined

INDIANAPOLIS — With sparks flying all around them, a group looking for a new career is learning to weld. The shop they’re working at is one of the few that opens its doors to just about anyone.

”We want this to be a space where anyone can grow and learn and develop in their welding skills,” said Jessica Rodriguez Hernandez, the deputy director of the Latinas Welding Guild.

Established in 2017, the LWG has worked for years to help all sorts of people become welders.

”We serve a very diverse group of students,” she said. “When we started the organization it was really with the intent to help women get into the trades, but as we realized it wasn’t just women who needed those doors to be open, and so we opened our doors to everyone.”

Hernandez said welding is a difficult trade to get into, with some of their students facing a myriad of obstacles when applying for a more typical trade school.

“Welding is an expensive trade to learn and so the machines, the PPE, everything is really expensive,” Hernandez said.

Not to mention, obstacles to getting that education.

”A lot of our Latino, Hispanic, immigrant and refugee families don’t have high school diplomas or there are language barriers that stop them from joining a traditional community college,” Hernandez said. “At the guild, we do have a multilingual programming as well as multilingual instructors.”

By the end of this year, the LWG will have certified more than 300 welding students. Many going straight into the workforce, while others will pursue higher certifications.

Stephanie Hernandez is one of the students who’s gotten her certification this year. She first stepped foot in the guild workshop in June.

”It was an opportunity, a new job skill,” Stephanie said. “Welding jobs pay a lot and I needed to learn something new.”

Now, she’s a teaching assistant with the LWG, helping her instructors teach classes every day. Something she said she never imagined she would be doing.

”The Latinas that gave me this opportunity to change my life, to be able to have a job, to be able to teach others how to weld,” Stephanie said.

The welders at the LGW aren’t just teachers, they’re creators, too. Recently, their biggest creation to date has attracted a lot of attention.

”The Eiffel Tower was amazing experience,” Jessica said.

Jessica and many others at the Latinas Welding Guild were the creators behind the 66-foot tall, 24-thousand pound Eiffel Tower replica, that was the centerpiece of nearly two weeks of downtown activity around the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials.

The attention from the project has put the guild on a new level.

”I don’t think they knew we could fabricate here,” Jessica said. “They just saw us as a welding school.”

The guild is now getting more orders for custom projects, including, another Eiffel Tower replica.

“Anywhere from handrails, to art pieces that are going to be going into places, to additional Eiffel Towers that will be brought up throughout different parts of the US,” Jessica said.

Not only that, the guild is attracting more students and connecting with more community partners.

”A lot of folks don’t know this trade and how lucrative it can be as an actual job so we’re seeing a lot more people be excited about programming. We’re actually selling out programs and having to add additional classes to serve all of those folks,” Jessica said.

Jessica said the growth has been exponential this year. Not just the students and orders – but their revenue and budget have increased, too. All going toward creating more welding futures for people who never thought it would be possible.

”A lot of these proceeds come back to the organization to help with scholarships because most of our students are living at the poverty line or below the poverty line,” Jessica said.

The acceptance, the safety, the welcoming environment the LWG has created here is based in their combined Hispanic heritage.

“Really it’s the culture we bring into the place,” Jessica said. ‘So, when people think about Latino culture we want it to be welcoming and warm and for people to feel safe where they are.”

This focus in their workspace helps them to defy the grungy or dirty stereotypes welding often gets.

“From a design perspective we wanted to bring that Latino and Hispanic culture into our space,” Jessica said. “Again, all of these colors are very representative of the countries we were from. All of us are from different countries and so even our offices are decorated in different colors.”

If you’re interested in learning from the Latinas Welding Guild, commissioning a piece from them or even donating, you can check out their website.

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