"The welding training has made a major difference in my life. I work at a farm where we also manufacture household and commercial furnaces for pyrolyzing organic matter. The resulting agricultural products are helping to sequester carbon dioxide by binding it in the soil among many other things. I have been able to start working with metal in the shop and I have also used my training to weld plastics for irrigation systems we use at the farm. My training has provided me a way to have year-round employment after having to leave my teaching job due to health issues and struggling through the winter layoffs from landscaping jobs each year. This way I can stay connected to the soil and also do technical things which I both love while being able to provide for myself. I enclosed a picture of one of my after work projects I train on, a plant trellis that I made from rusty scraps that were laying around. I am very grateful for the opportunity that I was given, and I found the training most meaningful."