Bella Lopez knew her way around a fabrication shop before she ever set foot in Morrison Sign Company. Tolles made sure of that. What the internship gave her was something harder to teach in a classroom: real production experience, real deadlines, and a supervisor who trusted her work from day one.
A Tolles Welding & Fabrication Technologies student from Jonathan Alder High School and a student-athlete wrestler, Bella joined Morrison Sign Company this school year as an intern through Tolles' 2x2 cohort program, which splits students between classroom instruction and real-world industry experience. What started as a learning opportunity quickly became something more. At Tolles’ Senior Signing & Recognition Ceremony — Tolles’ version of a college signing day — Bella officially accepted a full-time position with the company.
At Morrison Sign Company, Bella has applied and expanded the welding and fabrication foundation she built at Tolles, picking up new equipment and techniques on a working production floor. She learned to operate a DA sander on her very first day, worked with a smaller precision bandsaw, and got hands-on time with a metal bender and shear, all in the context of real client work.
“I learned how to use a DA sander on my first day. I’d never used one before,” Bella said. “I’ve used a bandsaw, but the one here is smaller — more for intricate things. And I’ve never used a bender like this one before either.”
Her work has spanned refurbishing signs, building frames, fabricating shelf brackets, bending aluminum, and learning how to properly square and assemble fabrication projects. But it’s the frame and sign work that has her most excited.
“I’m excited to do the frames,” she said. “And building my own signs. I think that’s so cool. I’ve only built one by myself so far, so I’m looking forward to doing more.”
Jonathan Nunn, welder fabricator at Morrison Sign Company and Bella’s supervisor, doesn’t mince words about her work ethic. “She comes in, keeps her head down, and gets right to it,” he said. “She keeps her phone on the table behind her. She doesn’t touch it. She just stays on task all day.”
Just as notable, Nunn said, is how quickly Bella absorbs new skills. “If she doesn’t know something, she asks — she doesn’t just make silly mistakes. I only have to tell her once, and she’s got it.”
That retention extends across projects. “When she does a project and comes back to it a month later, she knows exactly what she has to do,” Nunn said. “She picked up on how to square things up, how to keep everything straight. I don’t have to re-explain it.”
Nunn was equally direct about the quality of her welding. “I would have no problem with her welding up something that’s going to hang over my head,” he said. “That’s how much I trust her work.”
He also praised the grounding she came in with.
“We’re a fabrication shop, so students need to hit the ground running, and Bella did. She’s been learning everything that goes into a production environment, and she’s been doing really well.”
Joe Wood, Welding & Fabrication Technologies Instructor at Tolles, said Bella’s success reflects both her work ethic and her willingness to fully invest herself in the opportunity.
“Bella’s success really comes back to the effort she’s put in from day one,” Wood said. “Our students get out of this program what they put into it, and Bella has consistently shown the work ethic, attitude, and drive to keep learning. Morrison Signs has been a great partner in giving her the opportunity to grow those skills in a real production environment, and she’s taken full advantage of it. She has a very bright future ahead of her in this industry.”
Bella is currently the only female working in Morrison Signs’ fabrication area, a role she’s embraced in a traditionally male-dominated field. Women do work elsewhere in the company, she noted, primarily in the vinyl and graphics area, but the fabrication floor is her space.
Her path from Tolles intern to full-time hire reflects exactly what the 2x2 cohort model is designed to produce: students who are workforce-ready before they graduate, connected to employers who have already seen what they can do. For Bella, that means starting her career not with a résumé and a hope, but with a proven track record — and a job waiting for her.