From inside the Latinas Welding Guild, O’Neill Sustainability major Wendy Catalán Ruano helped recreate an icon of the 2024 Paris Olympic Summer Games.
Like Catalán Ruano, the students with whom she works are welders. At the guild, she helps them with course admission, scholarships, and gets them started as they enhance their skills through hands-on work. In 2024, that work included creating a replica of the Eiffel Tower that served as the centerpiece for the Paris Olympic swimming trials in Indianapolis.
“The plan was always to build an Eiffel Tower,” Catalán Ruano explains. “The Olympics team and local officials wanted to work with a nonprofit and were attracted to the guild’s mission.”
The nonprofit offers welding and manufacturing training to support students from marginalized communities. Its founder and executive director, Conseulo Lockhart, created it to empower students and increase diversity and opportunity within the field of welding.