•  Lincoln Electric - Atlanta 2010
     
    My name is Dustin Wright and I am the Intro to Manufacturing and Welding instructor here at Echols Middle School. I am also the Welding Technology instructor for Tuscaloosa County High School as well as Sipsey Valley High School and Northside High.  I also teach welding at night at Shelton State Community College. I am a lifelong resident of Northport, Alabama and now reside in Northwood Lake along with my wife Charity (who also teaches at EMS) and our son Roman.  I attended Crestmont Elementary, Riverside Junior High, and graduated from the "Real" County High in 1992.  I was introduced to welding in my Future Farmers of America classes in the 8th and 9th grade at Riverside.  I enjoyed it very much, but was unable to continue in these classes in high school due to conflicts with college prep classes and athletics. However, I always kept an interest in anything having to do with my hands.  I played football at TCHS and was lucky enough to receive a scholarship to the University of Alabama and was a member of the 1992 National Championship Team.  Unfortunately, I spent my college career on medical redshirt, but I was lucky enough to have my college paid in full.  At this point, I began coaching football as I finished college.  I graduated the UA in December of 1997 with a BS in Secondary Education - Comprehensive Language Arts.  Shortly thereafter, I was hired by the Tuscaloosa County School System to become the teacher at the Tuscaloosa Juvenile Detention Center where I taught for 15 years before coming full time to Echols in 2013.  I coached football at Holt High for 8 years serving as offensive coordinator there for 6 of those years.  From 2002-2006 I coached at Hillcrest high where I was Defensive Coordinator and asst head coach from 2004-2006.  I left Hillcrest to coach linebackers at Central High School in 2007 where we won a 4A State Championship.  I spent 2008-2010 at Paul Bryant serving as Defensive Coordinator.  I gave up coaching after the 2010 season to help my father run our irrigation business as a side job for me.  I also received a technical scholarship to Shelton State to complete my welding certificate which I completed in August of 2012. As of April 2, 2012, I also become NOCTI certified in the technical area of Welding.  In the summer of 2012, I completed the AWS welding instructors exam at Lawson State University for the Alabama State Department of education.  In October 2012, I completed Instructor Certification for NCCER which allows industry respected credentials for our students. As of this August 2014 I have completed all requirements for an Alabama Career Techincal Teaching Certificate Specialty Area 3 in Welding. In May of 2013 my duties as the Tuscaloosa County School System teacher at the TJDC for the second half of the day officially ended.  In our welding shop at Echols Middle School I teach a two first year Welding I classes for SVHS and TCHS, 4th period Intro to Manufacturing and Welding class for Echols Middle, and an Advanced Welding class to a combined group of students from all three high schools.  We also offer articulated credit and dual enrollment credit in Welding Technology at Shelton State Community College. Read the next section on how the welding technology program came to Echols to get the rest of the story.