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November 2025

- $1,000 SCHOLARSHIPS

Four MAMC career skills students awarded Welch Scholarships

---Marshall Advanced Manufacturing Center (MAMC) has announced the inaugural recipients of the Mary “Mickey” Welch Scholarship. Each of the four full-time students in MAMC’s career skills programs will receive $1,000 scholarships to support their educational pursuits.

---Winners were selected based on their academic standing as well as essays they wrote explaining their decision to pursue careers in manufacturing in addition to their personal and professional goals, according to MAMC Director Derek Scarbro.

---The recipients are Savannah Black, first-semester CNC Machine Tool Technology student from Charleston; Jordan Chapman of Huntington and Jessica Setliff of Hurricane, both third-semester SMART (Systems Maintenance, Automation and Robotics Technology) students; and Gregory Meadows a third-semester Welding Technology student from Kenova.

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Mary Anne Ketelsen (top) endowed the scholarships with a $100,000 donation to the Marshall University Foundation in recognition of her late mother, Mary “Mickey” Welch. “This scholarship honors her legacy by supporting students pursuing careers in the trades ­­­— fields she championed through her work and example.”

-MANUFACTURING SERVICES

Giant buffalo sculpture comes to life with a bit of high-tech assistance

---In a repurposed old building on Main Street in Sutton, a creature of colossal proportions slowly comes to life.

---World-renowned sculptors Bill Hopen and Ai Qui Hopen – West Virginians by choice – transform Ai Qui’s carefully crafted work of art – a 4-foot clay buffalo sculpture – into an 18-foot-long, 12-foot-tall, three-ton metal monument for the city of Buffalo, New York.

---Morphing a hand-formed sculpture into a larger-than-life beast is a gargantuan task in itself. How does one reproduce exact features to scale? And perhaps more importantly, how does one ensure the structural integrity of the buffalo once it’s enshrined atop a 10-foot-tall fountain, where it must withstand fierce ice storms and the buffeting winds off Lake Erie?

---Bill had an idea but wasn’t sure where to turn.

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(Top) MAMC Design Engineer Chris Shaffer scans the buffalo sculpture to create digital files. (Below left) sculptors Bill and Ai Qui Hopen transform the clay model into the giant sculpture in their Sutton studio. (Below right) Bill carefully bends and welds each bird into place to create the buffalo's body.

- STEM OUTREACH

Students from across WV to compete in MAMC robotics, drone events

---Get ready for the rumble of robots and the high-flying antics of aerial drones as Marshall Advanced Manufacturing Center (MAMC) hosts statewide student competitions this December in Huntington.

---MAMC, in partnership with the West Virginia Robotics Alliance and the Marshall University VEX Robotics Club, will present the Marshall University Aerial Drone Competition for West Virginia high school students Dec. 14, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., in Marshall’s Gullickson Hall. ------

---In Mission 2026: Time Warp, teams from across the region will program and pilot drones through a series of obstacles, using their skills to launch balls onto the playing field and maneuver them into scoring zones while landing their drones before time runs out.

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- MAMC FACES

Former summer camper – now MU student – becomes MAMC's go-to guy

---Skyler Clagg first walked through the doors of Marshall Advanced Manufacturing Center (MAMC) in 2014 as a scraggly 13-year-old, eager to participate in one of our 3D printing camps. The running joke around the office is that he never left—thank goodness!

---The former 3D printer and maker camp participant, now a Marshall University sophomore majoring in computer science, has become MAMC’s go-to problem-solver for nearly any technical issue. Phone not working? Computer acting up? 3D printer misbehaving? Audiovisual system on the blink? Nine times out of ten, Skyler is the one with a solution.

---“I’ve always been curious about how things work,” Clagg said. “When I was about 10, I took apart a Windows XP desktop just to see how it operated. Unfortunately, I also took apart the monitor. That wasn’t such a good idea.”

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AmeriCorps VISTA and Marshall University student Skyler Clagg first visited MAMC in 2014 when he participated in a 3D printing and manufacturing camp in Huntington.



MAMC, Toyota WV work-and-learn
partnership featured in Forbes

---With its industrial maintenance-focused S.M.A.R.T. program, Marshall Advanced Manufacturing Center (MAMC) continues its partnership with Toyota West Virginia by assisting the automaker – as well as companies all across the state and region – that are facing workforce skills challenges.

---This recent Forbes article details the automotive industry leader’s focus on filling the skills gap with the talent of local, young workers through an innovative work-and-learn approach at MAMC in tandem with Toyota’s successful “Grown Your Own” workforce strategy.

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Second-year SMART students Zacheriah Wooding of Huntington and Jessica Setliff of Hurricane adjust the tension on an electrical motor system in MAMC's Huntington hands-on lab.

Click the image to learn more or visit www.mfg.marshall.edu/jobs.

In case you missed it ... MAMC in the news

MU VP Brandon Dennison talks about MAMC's and Marshall's roles in boosting manufacturing and driving economic development – WVNS-TV

Demand For Manufacturing Employees Expected To Grow – WV Public Broadcasting

WV Manufacturers will need 7,000 new workers in 3 years – Huntington Herald-Dispatch



Manufacturing jobs await those who prepare and adapt – Williamson Daily News


WV Manufacturers will need 7,000 new workers in 3 years – Charleston Gazette-Mail



Thousands of manufacturing jobs needed in WV, according to Marshall survey – WV Metro News


UPCOMING EVENTS & TRAINING

Dec. 8: Workforce WV In-Person Job Fair

9 a.m. to 3 p.m., 5707 MacCorkle Ave. SE, Charleston

Multiple employers will be on hand to talk with job seekers about open positions at their companies and organizations. More information


Dec. 9: Life’s Pitch: How to Tell Your Story Anytime, Any Place

5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., online

Learn the basics of crafting a delivering a compelling business pitch during this Advantage Valley and FASTER WV workshop. You will learn

how to describe your idea even when it’s still

taking shape, and how to tailor your message for different audiences. More information


Dec. 11: The B2B Lead Engine Workshop: Your 14-Day Client Acquisition Plan

Noon to 1:30 p.m., online

Andy Morrision, founder and owner of Business UP AI, will explain how to attract more clients without a big ad budget or marketing team. Learn to identify your business clients, build a clear offer and start generating consistent B2B leads during this Advantage Valley and Faster WV workshop. More information



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