With Steely Resolve, Female Student Wins Pennsylvania State SkillsUSA Welding Competition

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Image via Alan Smithee at Upper Bucks County Technical School.
Abygail Jacobes, first-place winner in the first place for her entry in the 2021 Pennsylvania State SkillsUSA Welding Sculpture Competition.
Abygail Jacobes’ winning sculpture, “Flowers for David” was inspired by the 2018 passing of her grandfather.

A hand-crafted tribute to her grandfather earned a statewide honor for Abygail Jacobes, student at Upper Bucks County Technical School. 

Jacobes, a senior, won first place for her entry in the 2021 Pennsylvania State SkillsUSA Welding Sculpture Competition. 

“Flowers for David” is a study in contrasts. From a solid, boxy vase emerges a delicate floral arrangement composed of carbon steel. 

“I like flowers,” Jacobes said. “My grandfather, David Moser, passed away in 2018. It was kind of a memorial piece for him. 

“Everything you see at gravesites, you see flowers. And flowers represent beauty. Even when they’re dead, you can dry a flower out and still get beautiful things from it.” 

Jacobes considers her interest in welding to be somewhat genetic. “My entire family is ‘tradey’,” she commented. 

She also found an attraction to the sheer power of the blowtorch. 

‘It just really fascinates me how you can play with fire and really do such cool things,” she said. 

Post-graduation, Jacobes has already forged a path. She works for Klover Contracting, Quakertown, as a three-day-a-week intern. She starts full time there on June 7. 

It’s a bold professional choice for a female. Career planning site Zippia estimates only about 7 percent of current U.S. welders are women.  

More about Jacobes and SkillsUSA is at the Upper Bucks County Technical School

Here’s an NBC Today video segment on three successful women working in the welding industry.

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