Graduating from college in the middle of an economic recession can be scary, but Justin Lieber is sitting in the catbird seat.  The graduating senior from north Pulaski County has already landed a lucrative summer internship that will turn into a fulltime employment with one of the fastest growing companies in town, Welspun Pipes Inc., the world’s biggest fabricators of giant oil and gas pipelines in the world.

So far, the company has hired 15 students from UALR’s Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology (EIT), and they want to hire more.

“I am surprised and grateful,” Lieber said. “It’s nice to know we have options.”

Lieber, a graduate of Sylvan Hills High School, was one of 13 engineering students from UALR’s Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology (EIT) who recently toured the plant on the Arkansas River. Company officials hired all 13, and asked EIT Dean Mary Good to send more.

In addition to Lieber, UALR students landing internships at Welspun include Eric Anderson of Cabot, Andrew Bedinghaus of Little Rock, Tyler Krost of Warren, Juan Martinez of Sherwood, Mark Rucker of Hot Springs, Ben Smith of Bryant, Josh Thomson of Ashdown, Jon Tyler of Little Rock, Steve Ratkovic of Hot Springs, Andy Rayburn of Little Rock, Charles Shank of Little Rock, and Joseph Sipes of White Hall.

“It will keep them from flipping hamburgers this summer,” the dean joked. Seriously, she said Welspun’s commitment to hire UALR engineering students improves the quality of their education and makes them more valuable when they graduate.

“We have offers to welcome graduate students, seniors, juniors – even freshmen,” said Richard Janicki, senior vice president of the India-based company. “We can hire a continuing stream of these guys. I want to double this room with students we can hire.”

The Little Rock operation opened a year ago was Welspun’s first manufacturing plant outside India. Since the Little Rock plant opened a year ago, 400 people have been hired. He said that total, “will ramp up to 600 to 700” in the foreseeable future.

Janicki and three other executives at the pipe facility met with the 13 students on campus Friday and, over coffee and doughnuts, delivered official offers of employment. They credited EIT’s operation and its programs as a major reason the firm is succeeding.

“We want you and we need you,” Janicki said. “You people are the reason why we are going to grow in Little Rock.”

He also praised Dean Mary Good for her tenacity in building the Donaghey college.

“What you have done in the world, in education – you are a person to be admired,” Janicki said. “Some people try, others deliver.”