PTC student Ana Ramos forges her path by excelling as a welder

Ana Ramos knew she wanted to pursue a “hands-on” career by the time she was a senior at Emerald High School in Greenwood. She soon found an option at Piedmont Technical College (PTC) that sparked her interest.

“I was interested in construction but then I saw the welding program at Piedmont, and I jumped right into it,” Ramos said. “And from the first day, I fell in love with it.”

Her career choice defied convention. Only about 5% of welders in the nation are women, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

“My first semester, I was the only girl there,” Ramos said. “But they all just welcomed me with open arms.”

She never looked back.

Ramos has the talent to be an elite welder, said Jim Ladd, director of PTC’s welding program.

“She is an outstanding welder, one of the better welders we’ve had come through,” Ladd said.

She has honed her skills at welding aluminum, which can be particularly challenging.

“You have to be a lot more careful because of how delicate it is and how easy it is to mess it up,” Ramos said.

Thanks to this specialty, Ramos was hired in May as a full-time welder at VELUX, a Danish company that manufactures skylights at its facility in Greenwood. So now she works during the day and attends night classes at PTC.

“I love it there,” she said. “The people that I work with are all so friendly and welcoming.”

Ladd said that Ramos has helped recruit other women into PTC’s welding program.

Her advice to prospective students is to take the plunge.

“If there is something that you are a little bit interested in, it is better to go in and try it rather than never finding out whether you would have liked it or not,” she said. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work but at the end of the day all that hard work will be worth it.” 

After being born and raised in Greenwood, Ramos said, she is determined to find a welding job that allows her to visit new places when she graduates from PTC. She said working on pipelines is a possibility that she’s considering.

“I just know for a fact that I do want to travel,” she said.

To learn more about the welding program at PTC and other areas of study, visit www.ptc.edu/academics/areas-study.