Maddie Thomsen
Welding A Strong Future
story by JEANNE REYNOLDS photos by PAUL NURNBERG
If you’re looking for Maddie Thomsen, you’d better look fast. The 17-year-old Battery Creek High School junior moves at a quick clip between classes, the soccer field, club meetings, work, volunteer events, her family’s boat, and her surfboard — nearly nonstop. In fact, the only time you might find her standing relatively still is in her favorite class: welding.
Yes, welding. A’s in heavy metal, spark lighters, gas cylinders, and torches.
“I wanted to attend Battery Creek because of its agriculture program,” says Thomsen, who lives with her parents on what she describes as a “mini farm” in the Sheldon area outside Beaufort, complete with chickens, goats, and a cow. “But my advisory teacher, Nick Nicotri, taught welding and was always in the welding shop. I was kind of jealous of the kids in there learning to weld. It looked really cool, and I thought it would be really powerful to do it, so I got in the class this school year.”
Thomsen now spends an hour and a half every school day learning how to precisely and permanently join pieces of metal. She’s one of just two girls in the class of 14 students, and at 5’4”, the smallest.
“I’m the little midget in the room,” she admits. “All the others are bigger and taller, and you have to have strength to lift some of the pieces. The school even had to get special gear because all the jackets and gloves are men’s sizes.”
Welding is a male-run industry, Thomsen acknowledges. Of the more than 400,000 welders employed in the U.S., only 12% are women, according to careerexplorer.com (other websites, such as zippia.com, peg that number as low as 6%). But those odds don’t intimidate her.
“The guys make jokes, but it’s pretty easy to put them in their place because I’m actually better at it,” she says with a laugh.
“I like the manual aspect of it,” Thomsen adds. “With all my other classes, I’m sitting at a computer, but this is hands-on learning. It’s fun, and we’re like a family, all talking together while we work.”
The group demonstrated that family feeling earlier this year when the class worked together on a special fundraising effort for a fellow student in need. The student welders created 100 roses out of sheet metal and sold them all for Valentine’s Day, meeting their goal to earn $1,000 to support their classmate.
LIVING THE SALT LIFE
Thomsen’s new love for heavy metal doesn’t translate to her taste in music, which runs more toward old-school reggae. That bend toward island rhythms aligns with her love of being in, on, or near the water. She names boating, fishing, and surfing as three of her favorite hobbies and is eagerly looking forward to trying the waves during an upcoming family vacation to Costa Rica.
The call of the sea also plays into another new activity for Thomsen. She began a SCUBA diving course last summer and hopes to become certified this year. Earning her SCUBA certification could evolve into much more than a hobby, though, supporting one — or both — of her current career interests: marine biology and underwater welding.
“I’d never heard of underwater welding before I took the SCUBA course,” she says. “It’s one of the most dangerous occupations, but that makes it fun too.”
Thomsen says her parents think her interest in welding is “awesome” — an uncle was a welder, and her father, a chef by trade, is interested in it too — but are less enthusiastic about a dive into underwater welding. Not surprisingly, “They think it’s too dangerous,” she says.
When on dry land, Thomsen focuses her energy on playing midfielder and defense on the BCHS girls soccer team. She’s also a member of the school’s Future Farmers of America club based on her interest in agriculture (she does list a cow among her pets, after all). That’s in addition to working 10 to 20 hours a week in the Clockwise Coffee shop inside the Carolina Cider Company in Yemassee. Thomsen also enjoys helping with events and fundraisers for the Friends of Caroline Hospice, where her mother works — especially since the volunteer work often comes with extra benefits.
“They usually give us free tickets to the events, so it’s a win-win,” she says.
BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD
With her senior year still to navigate, Thomsen is setting her compass toward a four-year college degree. The University of South Carolina, Clemson University, and the University of Georgia are on her current shortlist. As a born-and-raised Beaufort native, she says she doesn’t want to go too far from home.
But wherever she ends up going and whatever she ends up doing, Thomsen says welding will continue to be part of her life.
“I’ll probably get a business degree if I decide to stay in welding,” she says. “But if I don’t do it as a career, I’ll definitely do it as a hobby.”
