Alumni Spotlight: Ariel Johnson

When Ariel Johnson took a welding class in high school, she had no idea the class would have a major influence on her future. She was convinced to take the class her sophomore year by a friend who already had welding experience.

“I hated it at first because I was the only girl in there. I was also left-handed which makes it a little more difficult, but as time went on I ended up liking it,” she said.

Johnson, who has a self-proclaimed competitive streak, decided to stay with the class, and her drive to be the best led her to enjoy welding enough to this major for her associate’s degree at junior college. Thanks to her high school’s dual enrollment program with Jones College, formerly Jones County Junior College, Johnson graduated with her high school diploma in May 2015 and her associate’s degree in August of that same year. A week later she moved to Starkville to begin senior college at Mississippi State.

Stepping on to campus her junior year, she was convinced her future was in another major, but she realized after being at MSU for a year she wanted a more hands-on career that would keep her interested and engaged from day to day.

After looking through MSU’s master class, Johnson noticed that the industrial technology major housed in the Department of Instructional Systems and Workforce Development offered a welding class. She knew that was something she enjoyed and immediately changed her major. She thrived and even had the opportunity one semester to help with the welding class that drew her to the major. She also came to view her professors and fellow students as a family and support system.

With the help of dual enrollment in high school, Johnson walked across the Humphrey Coliseum stage in December 2018 as an MSU graduate. The Monday after graduation, she began her career as a controls engineer at Yokohoma Tire in West Point. Once she adjusted to her new position, she began looking at graduate schools and was accepted into the online industrial management graduate program at the University of Texas, Tyler, and hopes to begin classes this summer. Once she finishes her graduate degree she hopes to come back to MSU to teach welding and be a part of the same support system that was part of her life when she was a student.

“Any time I needed anything, they were always right there,” Johnson said.