The Impact of Giving
We thank you for supporting Williamson College of the Trades. Your passion for helping deserving young men become respected leaders and productive members of society has truly made a difference.
You can help to prepare the next generation of Williamson Men by Making a Gift Today.
Tight bonds characterize Power Plant Technology Student
By Ed Weirauch Aris Topalidis truly embraces each day, because he knows first-hand that tomorrow is not a given. Now in remission for about 12 years, Aris suffered with leukemia as a child. He underwent [...]
Williamson student strives for high grades and to be outside
By Ed Weirauch Imagine receiving a gift that changes your life, that leaves you feeling so grateful that you just have to give back in return. That’s exactly how Deonte Jones feels about a gift [...]
With Williamson influence, ’22 Grad charts new course
By Ed Weirauch When a young man becomes a student at Williamson College of the Trades, he’s sure to get an education in the trades. But what’s not detailed in a textbook, workshop or course [...]
David McCann: ‘ready to contribute on day one’
By Ed Weirauch David McCann’s success may have its roots in a pizzeria, or on a neighbor’s lawn, but his foundation really lies in his natural sense of responsibility. Now a senior studying Horticulture at [...]
From wheelchair to crutches to clean bill of health
By Ed Weirauch When Barry Bealor made the decision to attend Williamson College of the Trades, he didn’t realize that his first days on campus would turn out to be one of the most trying [...]
Willy Tilley… Young Foreman
By Ed Weirauch Williamson senior William Tilley may be the most in-demand carpenter in Bradford County, PA. When he graduates in May, Willy’s options include the offer of a full partnership in a construction company [...]
Raymere Stewart lays a foundation built on motivation
By Ed Weirauch Williamson senior Raymere Stewart personifies motivation. In his short life, Ray has repeatedly been challenged, yet he consistently comes out on top. “I feel like I’m the rock, the one to set [...]
2021 Williamson Grad Made the Right Moves at Williamson
Mark Moriarty has moved nine times since the fourth grade, staying by his mother’s side as she struggled financially and survived cancer. When Mark arrived at Williamson freshman year, he was relieved to know he’d [...]
Power Plant Grad Pumps Music on the Side
Hammering beats and pumping baselines fill Salvatore “Sal” Carmolingo’s nights as a part-time DJ. But by day, this recent Williamson graduate will be working as a field service technician for California Boiler. Sal completed the [...]
Senior Machinist Fired Up for the Future
Jacob “Jake” Berge never felt like he was cut out for college. Maybe after high school, he would train to be a firefighter or a member of the Coast Guard, he thought. Then he saw [...]
Masonry Senior Stays True to Self
In his junior year of high school, Hunter Killinen was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. He spent a week in the hospital learning about his disease and how to manage it. At Williamson, Hunter learned [...]
Horticulture Senior’s Vision Blossoms at Williamson
Karon Tucker could have taken the wrong path, growing up in an area where crime is high and economic opportunities few. But he took the right path—a career path—at Williamson where he excelled in horticulture [...]
Student’s Many Talents find Singular Focus at Williamson
Most of the money Kyle Morgan earned in high school, working almost full-time at McDonald’s, went to his mother. A home healthcare aide, she struggled to support six children on her own. Kyle’s strong work [...]
Senior Horticulture Student Branches Out at Williamson
Giuseppe Pollino experiences an adrenaline rush at 40 to 50 feet in the air when he prunes or removes trees. But it’s his family tree, with roots planted in Italy, that inspired this horticulture senior [...]
Service and Faith Guide Carpentry Senior
In high school, Andrew Gildea helped raise $1.1 million for pediatric cancer patients and research. His four-year effort in a national student-run philanthropy group (THON) channeled his grief over the loss of his best friend, [...]
The Loss of a Parent, the Win of a Lifetime
Anthony Marascio struggled with the loss of his 42-year-old mother to cancer when he was age 10. Everyone rallied around his family, helping them through her six months of treatment and the aftermath. They made [...]
Paint Student Surfaces as a Career-Bound Leader
From Virginia to Florida, Joseph Spillman has interned as a painter and industrial coatings inspector, treating the inside and outside of a submarine, a water tower and a historic lighthouse. The Senior Painter has gotten [...]
Williamson Paves Way for Masonry Student’s Success
Two weeks into his senior year, James “Jimmy” McGarrigle received a job offer from the company he interned with over the summer. The Texas-headquartered construction firm was eager to hire the Masonry student who performed [...]
Home-Schooled Brothers Discover Diversity at Williamson
Gabriel Burnshaw thought he would apply to the police academy or enlist in the Coast Guard after high school. His younger brother, Nathanial, considered joining the plumbers or electricians unions. Both these teens – two [...]
Machine Shop Senior is Fully Equipped for the Future
Resilient and reliable. That’s how Williamson faculty and coaches describe John Busa, a senior who has excelled in Machine Shop and basketball. It’s also how John speaks of his father, who’s always been by his [...]
Senior Inks Good Impression at Williamson
Joe McDonald wears a tattoo on his forearm of his grandfather’s armed services card. The name, rank and serial number remind him of his grandfather’s love and companionship when he was a young boy shuffling [...]
Basketball Player Rebounds at Williamson
Vatangoe “Tangoe” Donzo comes from a family of African immigrants who fled war-torn Liberia and eventually settled in a rough neighborhood in West Philadelphia. Tangoe’s parents, a cab driver and home nursing aide, did all [...]
Masonry Student Cements Work Ethic
Colin Suter’s dad was deployed to Iraq when his son was in the fourth grade. It was a long and hard year for Colin — painful, stressful and uncertain, Colin recalls. He remembers standing with [...]
Horticulture Student Takes a Different Path
Kevin Tran’s parents, who fled Vietnam, wanted job security for their only child in America. But he showed interest in becoming an environmental conservationist, not the doctor or lawyer his parents expected him to be. [...]
First-Generation Senior Succeeds, Impacts Family of Nine
Joseph Ehly worked to earn money at a younger age than most boys. Shoveling snow or cutting grass, he knew that his parents couldn’t afford anything beyond the most basic necessities. Coming from a [...]
Summer Internships for Williamson’s Young Tradesmen
Retrofitting a basement into a home hair salon. Repairing an energy boiler for a California dairy plant. Installing garden containers in a Philadelphia park. These are some of the projects Williamson students worked on during their summer break. Regarded as key to their hands-on trade education, students between their freshman and junior years, as well as [...]
Painter Triumphs after Challenging Senior Year
Painting and sandblasting crude oil tanks at 35 feet in the air is not what James Moorhead ever imagined he would be doing. But McDermott International recruited this Paint and Coatings student for the [...]
A Student’s Dreams of Success and Service
When Jeremy Gannon’s stepfather died suddenly, his mother went to work as a bartender, one of several jobs she took in order to provide for her family. Then a high school student, Jeremy stepped up [...]
Williamson Empowers Student with a Successful Future
George Bradley moved in and out of schools frequently in his young life. His mother, who worked temp jobs to support the family, took him and his brother to Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and North Carolina. [...]
The Support of a Williamson Brotherhood
Senior Carpenter Jean Obispo never knew his father who died when he was two years old. Helping to fill that void was a close circle of friends and faculty at Williamson, who have supported and [...]
Williamson Prepares Class Officer for Unexpected Challenges
April 28, 2020 It’s an extraordinary and challenging time to be Senior Class President at Williamson. Students are living at home, while going online for class and shop amid the coronavirus pandemic. Adjusting to the [...]
Mason Lives and Learns Through Great Loss
April 21, 2020 The rough streets of Northwest Baltimore can cripple the dreams of even the most high-achieving teenagers. Tichon Johnson, a top scoring high school student, carried the emotional scars of losing a beloved [...]
A Williamson Legacy – Three Times Over
March 31, 2020 Just a few weeks after starting their freshman semester at Williamson, the Kimp triplets received a phone call from their mother. They learned that their father had passed away after a long [...]
Carpentry Senior Finds a Support Structure at Williamson
March 10, 2020 Patrick Kiely 2W0 has lined up a secure job after graduation, won a national award for soccer, and made Dean’s List the past three semesters. His college successes, however, belie the reality [...]
Williamson Helps Hort Student ‘Grow’ Career Opportunities
February 18, 2020 Living on a rural pastor’s salary required the Johnsons, a family of 10 children, to watch their pennies. They lived simply in the church parsonage. Their son Joshua understood his family had [...]
Machine Shop Senior is Williamson’s Very Own ‘Renaissance Student’
February 10, 2020 Senior Machinist Joseph Galbraith comes from a long line of educators. His parents, grandparents, and “too-many-to-name” aunts and uncles all held degrees. But when Joe finished his high school studies, he felt [...]
Williamson Helps Aigars Panzer Keep His Promise
January 15, 2020 Aigars Panzer made a promise to his birth mother when she visited him in an orphanage in the Eastern European country of Latvia. Days before, he had considered running away, but now [...]
Staircase Builder Steps Up His Game at Williamson
May 2, 2017 Luis Torres, a carpentry senior, built a near-impossible staircase, a freestanding structure with no center support beam. The unlikely project holds up well, mirroring life for Luis, who grew up in poverty [...]