March/April 2025 Our Ohio
This issue of Our Ohio highlights Ohio Farm Bureau’s programs, scholarships and other efforts to support ag education in the state and showcase career pathways in Ohio’s largest industry.
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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].
My first recommendation in your journey is to start out with a local farming friend or mentor along with joining an organization like Ohio Farm Bureau.
We’re just so thankful for the Farm Bureau and the foundation for helping put this together. And of course, the Boyert family for the vision they had with this grant. It’s jumping us forward 10 years. It’s unbelievable.
I could not have done it without the resources I have found through Farm Bureau.
It wasn’t until I joined the Wilmington College Collegiate Farm Bureau that I truly saw how my passion could translate into leadership, advocacy and a career.
The issue of property taxation remains as one of the biggest challenges our members face today. Ensuring agricultural property is valued for its agricultural potential and not development is critical to the continued success of Ohio agriculture.
Through the Select Partner program, we became educated in farm insurance and weren't just selling policies. It became more and more clear why farmers need an advocate like Ohio Farm Bureau.
So many of the issues that OFBF and its members are advocating for are important to all Ohioans. I look at OFBF as an agricultural watchdog advocating for farmers and rural communities across Ohio.
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