Kokomo Welder Earns $2,500 Trade School Scholarship

Students pursuing skilled trades can look for employer-funded awards like this one to help cover welding and technical training costs.

Updated on Nov. 1, 2026 in Scholarships

Kokomo Welder Earns $2,500 Trade School Scholarship

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Lane Waddell, an 18-year-old Western High School graduate from Russiaville, received a $2,500 Trade School Scholarship from Metal Supermarkets, one of eight awards in the company's fifth annual program, which distributed $20,000 this year to students pursuing skilled trades.

Why it matters

The award helps offset training costs for students choosing skilled trades such as welding, a path that can lead to a credential without the four-year degree route. Waddell's case shows how career-center coursework in Kokomo can connect to a postsecondary welding program in Ohio.

Metal Supermarkets' Trade School Scholarship awarded $20,000 this year across eight recipients, with Waddell's share at $2,500. The source does not list eligibility rules, application deadlines, or the full cost of the Hobart program.

The players

Metal Supermarkets

A metals supplier that funds the Trade School Scholarship program, which awarded $20,000 to eight students this year.

Hobart Institute of Welding Technology

A welding training school in Troy, Ohio, where Waddell is enrolled in its 40-week Pathways program.

Kokomo Area Career Center

A career and technical education center in Kokomo where Waddell learned welding and earned his 3G certification.

The details

Waddell began welding in his first year at the Kokomo Area Career Center, where he learned MIG, stick, and TIG techniques and operated a computer-controlled plasma cutting table. In his junior year he cut materials, welded pieces, and presented work for evaluation, and in his second year he earned a 3G vertical groove weld certification. He then enrolled at the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology in Troy, Ohio, completing a month-long basic stick welding course and passing his first practice bend test before starting the 40-week Pathways program in September.

Junior year at the Kokomo Area Career Center: Waddell cut, welded, and presented work for evaluation.
Second year at the Kokomo Area Career Center: Waddell earned his 3G vertical groove weld certification.
May 2026: Waddell graduated from Western High School.
September: Waddell begins the 40-week Pathways program at Hobart.

Education Landscape

The Trade School Scholarship program is now in its fifth year, placing this award within a multi-year corporate effort to fund skilled-trades training. Scholarships like this sit alongside the broader push to show that welding and other career-technical paths offer routes to employment outside the traditional college track.

Students weighing welding or other skilled-trades training can check whether employer-funded or corporate scholarship programs are open to them before enrolling. Ask a school's financial-aid office how much a program costs and which awards can be combined with it.

The takeaway

Trade-focused scholarships can ease the cost of career-technical training that leads directly to certification. Students interested in similar awards should ask their school's financial-aid office which scholarship programs they qualify for and when applications open.