July 15, 2024
Ferris State Welding student Abby Frisk dreamed of flying, now she’s helping build jet engines through an internship with GE Aerospace
Ferris State University Welding student Abby Frisk once wanted to be a pilot. But her career is taking flight in another way, helping build jet engines for one of the worldwide leaders in aerospace manufacturing.
Frisk is heading into her senior year in Ferris State’s Welding program and working this summer as an intern for GE Aerospace in Dayton, Ohio.
GE Aerospace is a world-leading provider of jet engines, components and systems for commercial and military aircraft with a global service network to support the products.
The company and its joint ventures have an installed base of more than 40,000 commercial and 26,000 military aircraft engines, and the business is playing a vital role in shaping the future of flight.
Fisk is a Wisconsin native but sought out a Ferris State education in part because of the strong reputation of the Welding Engineering Technology program and recommendations she received. But her interest in the field goes back to childhood.
“My interest in welding began on my family's dairy farm watching my dad and brother use it to help fix equipment,” she said. “My brother also used welding to make really cool sculptures out of scraps and tractor parts.”
Frisk took her first welding class in her junior year of high school and another her senior year, but the experience was cut short due to the pandemic.
She was drawn to flight around the same time.
“My interest in the aviation industry started at the airport near my house,” she said. “At their annual fly in, the fall of my junior year in high school I was talking to a family friend who was a pilot and learned that I could take flying lessons there and get my private pilot's license. Although I didn't start lessons at the time, that was the start of my passion for aviation.
She started taking classes at Fox Valley Technical School in Wisconsin and two of her professors were Ferris State Welding graduates. Her supervisor during an internship also is a Ferris State alumnus. Frisk followed their recommendations and transferred to Ferris State as a sophomore.
Ferris State’s Welding program is celebrating its 40th anniversary, the largest of its kind in the United States. May 2022 graduates entered the workforce with typical base starting salaries ranging from $70,000 to $85,000 annually. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports materials engineers, a grouping that includes welding engineers, has an estimated mean annual wage of $110,000.
Frisk said a May 2023 visit to Poland though a collaborative arrangement with the Polish government and GE Aerospace pointed her to the aerospace giant.
“I was drawn to my current opportunity because I would love to work in the aerospace industry,” she said. “GE Aerospace was a collaborator on my trip to Poland last year and has a development program I have applied for. I am very open to that prospect. My skills from coursework and all our time in the laboratory stand up very well here.”
Frisk’s hometown, New Lisbon, has fewer than 2,000 residents. She said this internship in southern Ohio gives her experience in a location very different from back in Wisconsin.
“The Evendale facilities near Cincinnati used to have 24,000 workers on site, at the peak of production,” she said. “Where I am interning in Dayton is not as spacious but is much larger than the businesses in Wisconsin I had worked in, with 100 to 300 employees.”
Frisk has been an engaged student, valuing the importance of networking through organizations such as the Society of Women Engineers, the American Welding Society, and the Experimental Aircraft Association she joined while in high school.
“If you have a particular interest, be sure to let your peers, professors, or any acquaintance know what you are after,” Frisk said. “You should reach out for any angle that can improve your chances and network, network, network.”