My Own Horn

posted by Jennifer Simpson

I’m really good at tooting other people’s horns.  I also good at telling other people to toot their own horns.  But when it comes to my own successes, for some reason I get shy all the sudden.

So, I’m taking a deep breath.  Here goes.

I have been selected to receive the 2009 IMAGE OF WELDING AWARD from the American Welding Society.

Welding? you may ask.  Why I didn’t know you were a welder!

And I will have answer that no. I am not a welder. I just play one online.  And write about welding.

The award is for my “exemplary dedication to promoting the image of welding in my community”–  which happens to be the world wide web.

I was nominated by my boss, who wrote in the application:

Jennifer took the lead on developing two industry leading blogs for Arc-Zone.com: JoeWelder.com and CarmenElectrode.com.

As Jennifer learned more about the welding industry, she became fascinated with the stories behind the people in the industry, and particularly the women in the industry, of which there are few. As of 2006 only 6% of welders were women according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, in spite of a projected shortage of welders, and the fact that there are good paying jobs out there.

With a hat tip to Rosie the Riveter, the iconic World War II factory worker, Jennifer developed a regular feature on the CarmenElectrode.com blog called “The New Rosies.”  Through this column she has profiled women who weld in a variety of industries, chipping away at some of the lingering stereotypes about women who weld and some of the misconceptions about what kind of work welding is. With the JoeWelder.com blog, Jennifer initiated a feature called “Show Me The Metal” to profile all kinds of interesting welders and a variety of welding applications.