When Logan Nikolai was 13, he pulled on a welding helmet for the first time. The bead he laid that day on a metal door at the Kids Kart Club shop in Neenah wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to spark something lasting.
Inspired by his grandfather, he had spent years helping build go‑karts, fixing engines and learning how things fit together. “I realized pretty quickly that this was something I loved,” Logan says. “I’ve always been a naturally curious person. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been interested in creating.”
That curiosity ultimately turned into a degree in Industrial Welding Technology from Fox Valley Technical College.
Now at age 21, between his family and his college instructors, Logan has had the encouragement and support he needed to follow his path, even as he went through some of the hardest moments of his life.
A spark in the shop
Logan grew up around people who built things. His grandfather, Chuck, could fix almost anything, and Logan spent long hours with him, learning by watching and then by doing.
“My grandpa was the type of person who could rebuild an engine with one hand behind his back, eyes closed,” he says. He also got Logan involved in the Kids Kart Club organization, so at age six, Logan started building and racing go-karts.
Kids Kart Club provides kids with the opportunity to build, maintain and race motorized go-karts. Later, the two of them helped younger kids build their first go‑karts, which is where Logan was first introduced to welding and fabrication.
He was interested in blacksmithing and knew he liked working with his hands. “I thought blacksmithing was the coolest thing ever, but it’s not exactly an in-demand career,” he says. “Then my mom pointed out that welding is like the modern-day blacksmithing,” so it felt like a doorway to something bigger. When his family contacted Fox Valley Technical College, Welding Instructor Ben Cebery gave them a tour. Logan still remembers the date.
That spring, he signed up for his first welding class at FVTC. He was just 14.
Discovering college credit by accident
Logan kept taking classes at FVTC during high school because he enjoyed learning the craft. He wasn’t thinking about dual credit or transfer opportunities at the time. He just liked welding.
It wasn’t until his junior year that one of his teachers at Western Christian Academy noticed he was doing high school coursework and welding classes at FVTC at the same time. After checking his transcript, they discovered he had already accumulated more than 20 college credits.
“It’s not like I walked into FVTC and said, ‘I need to take eight classes right now,’” he says. “I took one class per semester starting out until I realized I really like this and started taking more. High school is the perfect time to dip your toes into stuff you’re interested in, and if you end up liking it, it’s easy to carve out time.”
Those early college credits helped lighten his senior year and made it possible to focus on things going on at home.
Hard years and unexpected grace
Logan’s grandfather passed away in October 2022 after a long fight with cancer. Logan had the rare gift of a final clear conversation with him. “I just thanked him for everything he’d done and let him know that I was going to be okay,” Logan says. “He was so excited for me.”
Just two months later, Logan’s dad was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. Logan spent that year going between high school, college classes and home, caring for him as much as he could.
It was the only time Logan ever dropped a class.
But when he needed understanding, every instructor he reached out to showed compassion. They worked with him. They gave him space to take care of his family and reminded him that school would still be there when he was ready.
“That level of understanding meant a lot,” he says. His dad passed away just one month after Logan’s 18th birthday.
Instructors who shaped his future
robotic welding lab at the
Appleton campus
While Logan’s mom supported him emotionally, his welding instructors helped shape his career direction. He appreciated the program’s mix of theory and hands-on practice. Ben showed him the science behind the craft, the kind of details that pulled Logan deeper into the technical side of welding. Another instructor, Conrad Mains, grounded the theory in real workplace expectations. “Between the two of them, they helped feed my curiosity while glimpsing what the field is actually like,” Logan explains.
Together, they helped him understand not only how welding works, but why it works. Their classes sparked a new interest: welding engineering.
The path forward
Logan graduated from Fox Valley Tech with an associate degree in Industrial Welding Technology in December 2025. He is currently taking additional general education courses, preparing for a possible future transfer to study welding engineering at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.
He’s grateful for the start he got at Fox Valley Tech. “I’ve been very pleasantly surprised with Fox Valley Tech,” he says. “They not only offer great opportunities at reasonable prices, but the instructors show a level of understanding and passion that I just didn’t expect to see.”
Eventually, Logan hopes to be working in welding engineering, applying everything he has learned, to keep building, learning and challenging himself. He’s also planning to earn his Certified Welding Inspector credential.
“I love the challenge of figuring out how to make something work the way you want it to work,” he says. “There’s such a sense of accomplishment when it’s finally done. To see the thing that you created actually be put to use—something that people can benefit from—is what I’ve always wanted to do.”
