Thirty-three Father Judge seniors were honored last week for being the first to complete the rigorous, three-year welding program, the only one of its kind in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
At the ceremony were some of their future employers, such as DC Fabricators, Holtec International, L3Harris, PTR Baler & Compactor, Sea Box, DeVal and SEPTA.
Awards were presented to the top three in the class: Hugo JeanBaptiste, Dan Figueroa and Nick Edney.
Instructor Joe Williams believes in producing “varsity-level welders,” not giving out participation awards. He presented school president Brian King (class of 1997) with a Visionary Award for introducing the program in the 2019-20 academic year.
“This is an important milestone for the school,” King said of the graduation.
The welding graduates are Michael Alvarado, Robert Logan Anderson, Luca Bradford, James Conlon, Payton Cranston, Landon Culver, Nicholas Edney, James Ennis, Daniel Figueroa, Nicholas Foster, Joseph Gillespie, Tyler Guensch, Aidan Hanlon, Hugo JeanBaptiste, Zhavier Jean, James Jones, Jabriel Lopez, Israel Lugo, Colin McKee, Drew Meyers, Raymond Montijo, Minhtai Nguyen, Dilyn Prempeh, Jordan Rhinehart, Jalen Robinson-Green, Michael Rutter-McDaniels, Dominic Savino, Jacob Smith, Edward Szwedowski, Fesshaye Taylor, Vincent Vesci, Joseph VonHofen and Kyle Wiest.
Father Judge intends to implement additional course offerings in career and technical education over the next five years, including biotech, business, construction trades, culinary, engineering and entrepreneurship. ••
