How hard work and a childhood dream shaped this welder

By Emma Peterson.

Mikala Sposito took top honors at the SkillsUSA competition. Now, she turns her sights to the 2026 WorldSkills Competition.

When Mikala Sposito, a 21-year-old student at Washtenaw Community College (WCC) in Michigan, entered the U.S.A. Weld Trials earlier this year, she was ready to put her best foot forwards and “put [her] heart and soul into [the] competition.” And putting her all into the competition definitely got Mikala results – a gold medal in fact!

Her first-place win at this competition also won her the position of the official U.S. competitor for Welding at the 2026 WorldSkills Competition and a place in history. As the American Welding Society (AWS) reports, “[Mikala's] achievement marks a milestone: [She] is the first woman to represent the United States in welding at WorldSkills.”

Meet Mikala

Even before Mikala picked up a welding torch, she was ready to compete on a global stage. As a child, she envisioned that path to involve going to the Olympics for dance, soccer, track or horseback riding. And then she attended an AWS Maker Faire when she was 12. And the dream turned to welding. As she told SkillsUSA, “I tried it out and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I soon made it my thing. Whenever an adult would ask, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’, I would say with excitement: A welder!’”

As Mikala got older, her passion for welding only grew. Subsequently, she took classes in high school and began attending competitions. She recalled, “I started to take top-three placements at almost every competition I went to. It was such a high. I had never won anything before in sports, so this was all new to me.” The culmination of her high school welding career was a win at the 2024 SkillsUSA Michigan state championship.

But Mikala wasn’t going to stop there. And when she graduated school and began to plan her next steps, she kept welding centered. To do that, she applied for the work ethic scholarship from mikeroweWORKS. Looking back at her application today, Mike Rowe recalled Mikala’s incredible dedication to the trade, sharing, “I remember she wrote, ‘Hard work beats talent any day of the week and nobody is going to outwork me. Period.’”

In response to her stellar application, Mikala received $2,100 from the scholarship. She took that and entered a welding training program at WCC, a school that boasted producing top-tier welding talent including five other students who went all the way to the prestigious WorldSkills competition.

Winning gold in the U.S.

It was in this program that Mikala began to train under previous WorldSkills silver medalist Alex Pazkowski. She told SkillsUSA, “When I found out about WorldSkills and became more and more interested, I felt it would be a disservice to my younger self to not give it a try. I had a chance to achieve both of my childhood dreams in one go.”

Under Alex’s tutelage, Mikala spent 60-80 hours every week for two years preparing for competition on the national level. That hard work paid off. She took first place in the SkillsUSA Michigan college division her freshman year and finished eighth in the national competition. That performance got her an invite into the WorldSkills Team USA pre-trials.

And from there, Mikala won first place in the final U.S.A. Weld Trials at the Robotics Technology Park in Huntsville, Alabama earlier this year. Her performance at that competition was a powerful combination of precision, craftsmanship and technical execution. As Martica Ventura, senior manager for competitions, events and conferences at AWS put it, “Competitors at this level demonstrate exceptional technical skill along with the discipline, mental toughness and consistency required to perform at the highest level under intense pressure. Mikala’s achievement reflects the high standards required to compete on a global stage and shows that excellence in welding is open to everyone.”

As for Mikala, when she looks back on taking gold at the U.S.A. Weld Trials, she’s incredibly thankful, saying, “You sacrifice so much just for the slight chance of making it to WorldSkills. But the reward is incredible, and it feels even better knowing how hard I worked for it.”

Taking the global stage

The next chapter in Mikala’s story has already begun! She is now in the process of preparing for the journey to Shanghai, China for the 2026 WorldSkills competition alongside the other national finalists. Her preparation involves an intensive seven-month schedule that sees Mikala participating in “practice competitions and training events in Australia; Canada; Huntsville, Alabama; and China.”

And no matter what happens on that global stage, Mikala has showcased incredible dedication to her trade and has already made history. As Mike Rowe put it:

Mikala prefers when the press doesn’t make a big deal of her gender, and I completely understand (she’s a welder – not a “weld-her.” But [it’s also important to recognize that] the industry is in desperate need of proof that women can and do excel in the trades. Nationally, just 4.3% of tradespeople are female... Companies are anxious to recruit talented welders of any gender, and women need to understand and believe the opportunities are real. Mikala prove[s] that in spades.

Keep up with Mikala and the rest of the U.S.A. WorldSkills team as they make the trip to Shanghai!

Image sources in order of appearance: SkillsUSA, Mike Rowe, WorldSkills USA