Did you know what you wanted to do for a career when you were a freshman in high school? I didn’t! I don’t really know anyone who did — isn’t that what college is for?
Lyndsi Tingle did. She wanted to be a welder, and she and her teachers agree — she’s on the right track to succeed.
Frankfort Face: She makes sparks fly
By Katheran Wasson
Lyndsi Tingle wore men’s welding gloves for three years before she realized they made smaller pairs for women.
The 17-year-old Western Hills High School senior welds, cuts and bends metal alongside the boys at Franklin County Career and Technical Center.
She spends four hours a day in tan Carhartt overalls and a T-shirt, safety goggles propped on her blonde head.
“Most of the guys kind of look at me as mama,” she said, sitting in the workshop before winter break.
“If something needs to be done, they know that I’m going to be on them to do it.”
Lyndsi has known since freshman year that she wanted to make a career out of welding.
After graduation, she and five of her classmates will head to Tulsa Welding School in Jacksonville, Fla., to study the craft.
She hopes to eventually become an inspector, checking the welds on bridges, power plants and pipes to make sure they are secure.