With the number of construction and extraction jobs expected to increase by 10% in the next seven years, senior Nolan Moore took a chance and decided to join the construction pathway his eighth grade year.

“When I joined, I noticed I was having a lot of fun with it [construction],” Moore said.

Mentors or teachers can help drive and shape students’ passions for the good, and luckily, Moore began to foster his passion in eighth grade with Coach Bennett and in high school with Mr. Squiers.

“He [Coach Bennett] was just a great mentor to me, he opened me up to all the incredible things if I continued with the pathway in high school. Then, I met Squiers at NC, who really got me involved in it,” Moore said.

After becoming a sophomore, Mr. Squiers realized that Moore possessed a great deal of potential in the field of plumbing. Moore accepted his request to show off the plumbing skills he acquired in class at a SkillsUSA competition in March 2015.

“He said ‘Hey, there’s a competition, do you wanna go?’ I went and I figured out I was really good at what I did,” Moore said.

Moore competed at the SkillsUSA State Leadership and Skills Conference his sophomore year for plumbing, but did not hear his name announced as the first place winner during the awards ceremony. It did not seem right to him because he felt like he placed above everyone else, so when his scorecard came out, it turned out the judges did not add up his score correctly. He notified Squiers and SkillsUSA adviser Mr. Barcarse about this and he rightfully acquired his first gold medal at the state level.

“The official name of the competition is called Residential Plumbing, meaning that you work with the systems you find in someone’s house: sinks, toilets, things of that nature. At state, we just had to put in a sink and shower. Real simple stuff,” Moore said.

Since he placed first in the competition, it sent him to the national level where he competed against the best high school plumbers in the country. At the national level, the expectations rose.

“You have to worry about cast iron, not just PVC pipes. You have to worry about things not just found in a residential area, but instead a commercial site. You have to worry about lavatories, mop sinks, sub pumps, just to name a few,” Moore said.

He ended up with 12th place that year at Nationals. His junior year, he returned to the State Leadership and Skills Conference only to reclaim his title as the best high school plumber in the state of Georgia. He improved from his 12th place finish the previous year at Nationals and came in 10th place.

With his successes in SkillsUSA, Squiers introduced Moore into a program  called Ace Mentorship. It gives students a chance to tour facilities and job sites of occupations that they may want to do later on in life.

“When I toured the MaxAir Fabrication Shop, I realized that I loved it. I interned at the shop for two weeks, then I applied for a job and got hired,” Moore said.

Working at the MaxAir Fabrication Shop does not just give Moore a chance to sharpen his plumbing skills, it allows him to broaden his scope of practice.

“I also do sheet metal, a little bit of welding. It gives a little taste of other mechanical trades,” Moore said.

One can deduce that if you want to succeed in life, you must possess a loving and supportive family that will back you on whatever decisions you make. Moore’s family does just that— all 20 members of it.

“When I was first born, it was just the base four of my biological siblings, then my mom had my baby sister, which made us five, which made up all of my biological family. My mom is part of a parenting group that had babies around the same time, which is how we got introduced to the Whitneys, which added five more members to the family. But before I was born, my parents were foster parents because they were just good people. All the foster kids stuck around, adding ten more people,” Moore said.

Moore became so involved with SkillsUSA at NC that he forced his little sister to join the SkillsUSA chapter at her middle school. His family hopes he can take his plumbing skills with him later on in life after he graduates.