FEF’s College Industry Conference (CIC) is just around the corner––it’s your opportunity to meet and network with over 120 of the brightest students looking for an internship or full-time position in the metalcasting industry. 

Plan to attend the 2025 College Industry Conference November 20–21 at the Westin Michigan Avenue in Chicago. View details and register at fefinc.org/cic.

Over the past 40+ years, many companies have found their next great employee. This month, we’re looking at three that recently met and hired CIC student attendees.

UAB Grad Lands at American Cast Iron Pipe

First up: Meet Hannah Blansett, 2023 graduate of University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) with a master’s of science in materials engineering. She became interested in metalcasting after attending her first Open Foundry Day at UAB. 

Blansett attended the CIC in 2021 and is currently employed by AFS Corporate Member American Cast Iron Pipe Company as a research engineer. In her current role, she says she “gets to explore both metallurgical and corrosion research, which were two areas I was deeply interested in during my time in college.” 

“The metalcasting industry has one of the most welcoming industry communities that I’ve encountered,” she added. “The friendliness and openness of the people continue to astound me and reaffirm that I made the right choice in pursuing this career.”

Waupaca Finds a New Metallurgist

Paulina Vega is a plant metallurgist at AFS Corporate Member Waupaca Foundry thanks to the folks she met at the 2021 CIC, where she was offered a six-month co-op. Upon her graduation from Instituto Tecnologico de Saltillo in 2022, she was offered a full-time position.

What Vega enjoys most about her current position is “knowing the direct impact on society that my job has.” She added, “It gives me a sense of pride to make sure the castings that are sent to the customer have the right chemistry and microstructure that will ensure a quality performance.”

Foundry Hires Production Engineer

Cole Olson attended the CIC in 2023 and is a December 2023 graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Platteville. He is currently employed at Chromalloy Castings as a production engineer.

Olson grew up around a foundry and said he always loved watching the team pour molten aluminum. “I’ve always enjoyed solving problems,” he added, “and working in metalcasting allows me to combine that passion with the hands-on, dynamic environment I grew up admiring.”

Not only did Olson meet his current employer at the CIC, he also met with representatives from AFS Corporate Members Grede and General Motors at previous CICs and interned at each of those companies.