April Student of the Month

Congratulations to Jason Lester!!

After serving our nation for 20 years in the United States Marine Corps, including service in foreign wars and multiple combat tours, Jason decided to devote himself to learning the craft of welding. His natural dedication and work ethic served him well, as he quickly mastered the welding processes, and his leadership and training skills, well-honed in the Marine Corps, shone at GTS as he often assisted fellow students throughout their training. Many students commented at his graduation about how much they had learned from Jason. He is already employed by Acme Cryogenics in Ball Ground, Georgia.

Thank you for your service, dedication, and leadership, Jason -
we wish you the best! Semper Fi!

The Best of American Craftsmanship!

Huntington Ingalls Industries plans to hire 3,000 employees this year, and following a recent visit to Weldland, they made 8 job offers to upcoming GTS graduates (see above, HII CWI Michael "Ozzie" Osbourne inspecting GTS students' weld tests).

The military’s largest shipbuilder recently had a very special visitor - the 45^th President of the United States! President Trump proclaimed that Ingalls is “American craftsmanship at its biggest, at its best, at its finest.” We completely agree!

Ingalls-built ships have been making global headlines in recent months - the USS Ross and the USS Porter provided our nation’s response to the Syrian chemical weapons attack (see below) and the Coast Guard Cutter James seized 16 tons of cocaine worth an estimated 420 million dollars. This is why HII is called "the most important 800 acres in America"! We are so proud to have them as our signature employment partner.

Community Matters

We are thrilled to announce a gift of tools and equipment to the Construction Program at Kennesaw Mountain High School (see above; KMHS Construction Class, with GTS Welding Instructor Scot McKneely and GTS Founder Ryan Blythe). This gift was based on a wish list created for the Cobb Workforce Partnership by Kennesaw Mountain High School Teacher, Jeremy Whitaker.

“I just wanted to you THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all the amazing tools you donated to our program at KMHS! We have ALREADY put them to good use! You made my semester when I say the door open and you walk in with that flatbed cart full of tools! I was in complete shock! You guys are such a blessing to our program and to our community as well! It is a pleasure to have such an amazing partnership with Ga Trade School! You guys are a shining example of what industry partnership looks like!”
- Jeremy Whitaker

“Your generosity is incredible and we can’t begin to thank you enough.”
- Dr. Mark Trachtenbroit, Principal Kennesaw Mountain High School

Grand Slam

The Atlanta Braves celebrated the opening of SunTrust Park (pictured above) and Battery Atlanta on Friday April 14^th with a victory over the San Diego Padres. GTS graduates have been all over this project, and remain working on the in-progress Omni Hotel. One of the most exciting aspects of this 1.2 billion dollar development is the Coca Cola Roxy Theatre, where our welders recently completed hand rails for this new musical venue (pictured below).

The reviews of the South’s newest sports and entertainment destination have been fantastic - including one from Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred who declared “it is the future of baseball”.

Since April is National Welding Month and also Opening Day it is important to note that stadiums don’t happen without the welding industry!

GTS Goes NASCAR

Our newest venture is in sports marketing with Nascar driver Ryan Sieg and his RSS Racing team. Ryan is from Tucker, Georgia and currently is in the Top 15 in the Xfinity Series Point Standings. Since Nascar teams spend about 950 man hours on welding and fabricating each car, the 200 mph atmosphere of a motorsports race is an awesome place to promote skilled trades.

In March, GTS Vice President Sean Quinton and Welding Instructor Stephen Leone were on pit row at Atlanta Motor Speedway supporting RSS Racing. A month later GTS Founder Ryan Blythe (see below) went to "No Limits Texas" (Texas Motor Speedway) to watch the GTS sponsored car in person. Of course about a million people saw the car too, on the FOX Television Network!
We are extremely excited about building this relationship and look forward to racing at Chicagoland later this summer.

For more information on Ryan Sieg and RSS Racing, please check out their website:

http://ryansiegracing.com/

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