INDUSTRY FACES
Young Metalcaster Takes Circuitous Route to Find His Passion Nicholas Bouska isn’t one of those
Within two years, Bouska was the
stories where he, his dad and his dad’s dad were always in the business. He didn’t grow up in a metalcasting facil- ity. Instead, the Iowa farm boy went to school at the Univ. of Northern Iowa (UNI), Cedar Falls, Iowa, with an interest in biology. Tat gave way to a crack at business. Tat gave way to a growing suspicion that, although Bouska didn’t struggle in class and earned good grades, maybe college wasn’t for him. But a conversation with a family
friend about UNI’s Metal Casting Center, a research and technical assis- tance facility, piqued Bouska’s interest. “I spoke with Scott Giese (UNI’s
Foundry Educational Foundation Key Professor), and he encouraged me to come to a meeting,” he said. “And when I saw them pour molten brass, I knew this was for me.”
president of UNI’s AFS student chap- ter, an intern at the John Deere facility in Waterloo, Iowa, and the recipient of the Ray Witt Memorial Scholarship. Despite the accolades and an obvious passion for metalcasting, Bouska still wondered where his path within the industry would lead. “At John Deere, I worked in the maintenance engineering depart- ment,” he said. “At that time, it was perfect. As much as I love the foundry, I couldn’t decide what I wanted to focus on. Tere, I got to be in all the departments learning about melting, molding, cleaning and finishing. Tat was a phenomenal experience.” Bouska then accepted a summer in-
ternship at Magma Foundry Technol- ogies, which led him to recognize his enjoyment of design and simulation. “It’s funny that I’m at a computer
working on designs because in high school I heard someone got a job at the foundry and I said I’d never work at a place like that,” he said. “It’s hot, it’s dirty, it doesn’t sound like a place for me.” But in his three years at college, Bouska has discovered that metalcast- ing is something much different than he first imagined. Te course of his career looks to be very different than the grimy dead end he first thought it to be. A curious student just a few semesters ago, Bouska now is an evan- gelist when it comes to metalcasting. “When I would invite people to the Metal Casting Center, I wouldn’t just talk about the meetings,” Bouska said. “I would say, ‘Hey, we’re going to be pouring iron or steel and you should come check it out. Tat’s what got me interested and that’s what gets people to be involved.”
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