by Carly Dick
The Paducah Sun
March 14, 2025
Used with permission.
Emma Campbell, a senior at Paducah Tilghman High School, discovered her passion for welding while attending the Paducah Area Technology Center. She now wants to use her skills to become a metallurgist.
Campbell is this week’s Associated General Contractors of Western Kentucky’s Technical Centers Student of the Week.
While attending an event in eighth grade to prepare for high school, Campbell discovered the Paducah Area Technology Center, which offers classes in trade programs.
“I saw that the Paducah ATC had a booth there, and they had this lady, she was talking about welding, and I thought it was super cool. When I talked to all my teachers about it, they said that it was a good career path,” she explained.
Campbell said it took no time to recognize that she preferred welding over the other trade courses.
“My freshman year, you had to take a rotational class between all of the trade courses that they offer. I took that, and then I did some welding. I said, ‘I really love that.’ So that’s what I’ve done all four years of high school,” she said.
Her goal after high school is to study engineering and materials science.
“What I’ve wanted to do forever is to be an engineer because my dad is a software engineer, and we have a bunch of engineers in my family, and that’s what I wanted to do,” Campbell said. “I never really had a specific discipline in engineering that I really liked. And then I started doing welding, and I found out that material sciences and metallurgy is pretty connected to welding, so I’d still be able to use my welding experience and how much I love to do that in engineering. So I’d really love to do that.”
Campbell has already been accepted to the University of Kentucky and Colorado School of Mines. She is currently deciding which university to attend, but her dream school is Colorado School of Mines.
“They have the best metallurgy program,” she said.
Campbell said she believes the welding courses she has taken for nearly four years at the Paducah ATC will help her in her continued education.
“Whichever school I go into, both of them have welding equipment and sections, and you need to get experience doing that to get that degree. So I think that’ll give me an upper hand in the way that I already know how to weld and how to use all the equipment that would be in the shop,” she said.
Campbell has been a SkillsUSA member since 2022 and was vice president of the club in 2024. She won first place in the statewide SkillsUSA Banner Competition in 2023 and the statewide SkillsUSA Poster Competition in 2024.
Campbell is also a member of the National Honor Society and Beta Club. She placed fourth in the Regional Governors Cup Writing Competition in 2025.