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In another life, retired electrical engineer Brad Mularcik might have been a welder.

As a kid, he messed around with welding equipment in his father’s home workshop. As an adult, he picked it up again and again. Finally, 14 years ago, he got his own equipment, taught himself how to use it properly and soon was happily repairing broken shovels, classic cars and whatever his friends and neighbors brought him.

Next, he began teaching the welding Boy Scout badge to scouts where he lives in Copley, Ohio, and that led to a revelation: Too few young people were taking up welding as a career.

“I learned a lot about the skills gap in America while I was teaching the welding merit badge for the Boy Scouts, and I had heard about it from watching Mike Rowe on the show, ‘Dirty Jobs’ Mularcik said. “He has a foundation that awards scholarships to kids who go to trade schools, and I thought, ‘I don’t have Mike Rowe’s money, but I can do something.’”

That something was the Mularcik Welding Scholarship, which is administered through the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation. The first scholarship, worth $1,000, was awarded in 2023. The award is for students who are pursuing a certification, accreditation or a degree related to welding.

Dominic Wyne of Akron was the first to be awarded the scholarship. He’d taken welding classes at East Community Learning Center before graduating in 2023 and moving on to the welding program at Stark State College.

“Welding is a really good career choice, and one you’ll be able to live well on,” said Wyne, who got his certificate in welding technology from Stark State in December and was interviewing for jobs in January.

“Applying for the scholarship was pretty simple, and it was the only one I found related to welding,” he said. “It was my favorite scholarship.”

With scholarships and government help, Wyne graduated with no debt from the program, which cost about $12,000 when books and equipment are factored in.

“I don’t have any debt, and that’s everything to me,” he said. “I would have done it without the scholarships, but I was glad to spend a few hours applying for them to save that money.”

The American Welding Society projects that 330,000 new welding professionals will be needed in the United States by 2028 to work as boilermakers, structural metal fabricators and fitters and sheet-metal, structural iron and steel workers, among others. With about 21% of the estimated 771,000 U.S. welding professionals aged 55 and older, AWS expects a huge shortage of welders as older welders retire and fewer young people trained in the trade.

Although he’s college educated, Mularcik knows that college isn’t for everyone.

“I see a lot of young people who have a great desire to be successful and they’re told if they go to college, they’ll be successful,” he said. “No one tells them they have to pick a major that will actually lead to a job.”

Certification in a skilled trade, he said, is a way to earn a good paycheck with a lot of hard work.

Mularcik investigated several ways to offer his scholarship before turning to Ohio Farm Bureau, which he’s been a member of for years, and the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation.

He and his wife, Paula, have harvested honey on their property in Copley, near Akron, in the past and now tap 400 trees a year and produce about 50 gallons of maple syrup. Paula Mularcik is an active volunteer and currently a trustee of Summit County Farm Bureau.

“I’m extremely happy working with the Farm Bureau Foundation,” Mularcik said. “The scholarship is not agricultural, aside from the fact that most farmers know how to weld. The Farm Bureau has been really helpful in creating it and have made it an absolute joy to do this.”

Scholarship details

Mularcik’s scholarship is open to Summit County residents and has a March 31 deadline.

More information on all scholarships that are available can be found by visiting the foundation’s website.

Online extra: Establishing a scholarship

Interested in creating a scholarship or supporting a program along the youth pathways trajectory? Contact the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation at [email protected].