Pictured from left, Bill Katko and Mike Katko

Nestled in a valley in the city of Farrell and Sharon, Pennsylvania is where you’ll find NLMK Pennsylvania – a producer of high-quality flat roll steel for the construction, automotive, pipe and tube, and heavy equipment industries. It’s also where you’ll find brothers Mike and Bill Katko. Both are YSU’s STEM college graduates whose family have deep roots in the steel valley.

Mike Katko is the most recent family member to join the NLMK team. While finishing his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Mike served as an intern which helped pave his way to fulltime employment. “It’s been a great experience and a smooth one,” he said. “I got to learn my job, meet people I would be working with, and get my feet wet.” 

In talking with his older brother Bill, his enthusiasm for YSU, industrial engineering, and NLMK became apparent. “I had a really good internship experience here (NLMK) and loved the family feeling,” he said. Being able to take his course work to the next level was inspiring. “It was great for understanding the complexities of a union and a salary operation. Trying to provide a cross functional approach to projects and KPI improvements, which you wouldn’t get in classroom setting, was great. It’s taking course work to the next level and applying things!”

“The relationship between Youngstown State University and NLMK has been mutually benefitting,” according to Bill Benson, Vice-President of Operation for NLMK. “For one, their Excellence Training Center has helped advance our production employees aspiring to join our maintenance team. And secondly, because of the caliber of interns within the STEM program, we’ve been able to offer a number of fulltime positions.”

Having a long line of family members in the steel industry is partly why the Katko brothers like being at NLMK – the family feeling. “It doesn’t surprise me,” Benson said. “We’ve had generations of steelworkers through this mill and plan to continue that for generations to come. And at the end of the day, it’s all about our people.”