November 22, 2019 Washtenaw Community College
The Dotsons sit side-by-side every Tuesday morning in Welding Print Reading class working toward associate degrees in Welding Technology.
For Wayne Dotson, welding is an opportunity for a second career after retirement and for Andrew it’s a chance to gain skills to compliment his new firefighting career.
“It’s been really fun having my son in school with me,” says Wayne Dotson. “Just watching him grow — becoming an adult — is something that I’m really happy I get to do. I’m glad I get to see him growing as a man.”
Andrew Dotson says, “it’s been a great experience to be in class with my dad.”
He talks about working together to find the right angles for a blueprint. “It helps a lot having someone I’m confident and trusting with these things,” he says.
Welding and Fabrication department chair Glenn Kay II teaches the class the Dotsons are taking together. He says he sees them interacting more as peers in the classroom than father and son.
“It very much seems like they’re friends sharing their fondness of welding and what they can create together,” says Kay. “It’s an incredible journey for both and I couldn’t think of a better way to pursue a career than to pursue it with a friend. I hope one day to share an experience like that with my son or daughter.”
Though they’re tackling the program together, the Dotsons are enrolled for different reasons.
Wayne Dotson has been a paramedic and volunteer firefighter for more than a quarter century. In 2017, he started contemplating a career change to something a little less stressful and physically demanding.
Upon graduation, Wayne Dotson’s ideal job would be as a pipeline welder, so he can spend his days traveling around the country, working outdoors and listening to the steady hum of an electrical arc.
“I find welding very peaceful and calming. The sound of the electricity is soothing,” Wayne Dotson says. “Plus, when you’re out on a medical call, you never know what’s going to happen. With welding, you can predict what’s going to happen.”
Andrew Dotson was always the type of kid that didn’t like to sit still, which explains how he became a certified firefighter with the Springport Fire Department even before he graduated from Springport High School in June of 2018.
Now a paid on-call firefighter with the department, he was dual-enrolled at WCC during his senior year of high school and is beyond the halfway point of his degree program.
He’s taking classes while working full time and following in his father’s footsteps by taking medical first responder training.
“For me, the welding degree is more of a fallback plan or a future side job,” says Andrew Dotson. “Sometimes because of the way firefighters are scheduled, you have extra time to work on the side.”
Whether it’s a future full-time career or a side job, both Dotsons have proven they have a propensity for welding.