You are probably aware that our foundation, Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs, gives scholarships to young people and grants to educators.  

These are wonderful and impactful ways we hope to shape the future of our industry – but they are not the only resources NBT offers. We strive to build relationships that will carry the next generation past graduation and into real, exciting careers in manufacturing. 

We stopped one of our former scholarship winners at FABTECH 2023 to ask him how he’s doing, and we’d like to tell you his success story. 

Michael Aja knew from an early age that he wanted to work in Engineering, but he was intimidated by the size of the industry and all the exciting things going on. Fast forward to 2019, and he’s well on his way as a student at the Pennsylvania College of Technology.  

Michael applied for (and was awarded) an NBT scholarship that semester, and he told us that it “really really helped out quite a bit.”  

But that is not the end of this story. 

You see, Michael stayed in touch with NBT staff as he worked his way through school. During his final semester he was finishing his degree while looking for work and he reached out to the foundation staff with questions. They told him that there were a limited number of grants available to help scholarship winners to attend FABTECH. He applied and was awarded again; a grant to offset the cost of attending North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, welding, and finishing show. 

“I made contact with my current boss at Fronius right now, and he said he was going to be here at FABTECH. So, I arranged a meeting with him and that was my first “soft interview” with the company,” Aja said. 

That NBT grant facilitated networking, industry exposure, and eventually for Aja – a career at Fronius. He shared with us his excitement to work on new projects in automotive and welding, and helping customers improve their overall end results. 

Michael has an intern on his team this year and he told them to check out NBT and see what could happen. He also told them about the importance his FABTECH visit had on his own path. “Everybody in the industry is here at FABTECH, so there’s a lot of opportunities to meet people,” Aja said.  

Grants and scholarships are just one small part of the support network we have been building for students over the last several decades. Scholarships for careers in manufacturing are a steppingstone into stories like Michael’s, and we are happy to shape the future in this way.  

Your donations allow us to keep telling stories like this and offering meaningful support to the next generation of our industry. Thank you for being a supporter of Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs.