18-year-old graduate wants to become the best welder he can be
Published at
IDAHO FALLS — Stetson Rowe just graduated from Technical Careers High School and loves to weld.
The 18 year old has a strong work ethic and a busy schedule. As a student, he has held a job at Egan Machine, a welding company.
“I have been working there for about a year and have built some super cool stuff there,” Stetson said. “I built a couple of metal roofs. We had to weld posts to them.”
He said his welding teacher in high school, Tristan Telford, told him about the job at Egan Machine, so Stetson got an application and applied to be a part of the company.
Stetson said he’s enjoyed learning how to weld at school and says Telford has helped him to gain skills along with the experiences he’s been learning from others around him.
“Telford, the welding instructor, he pushes you. If you show him a good weld, he’ll tell you to get rid of it and you can do better, so you are perfect at it. That helps a lot. My boss at Egan Machine, he helps me a lot too, kind of guides me,” Stetson said.
He explained he likes welding because you get to build and his classes at school gave him the hands-on experience that has made him prepare for the real world.
“Just the fact that you get to build almost everything. I mean, there’s really not one thing you can’t do in there. We built flatbeds in there, tables, picnic tables, trailers. We’ve done pretty much everything in that class,” Stetson said.
After graduation, Stetson hopes he can become the best welder he can be. He says he believes he got his work ethic from his dad, who is a machinist.
Stetson said he has enjoyed attending Technical Careers High School and has gotten to know so many people and has made great friends.
“We are such a small school. We are pretty much family,” he said. “(We’ll) go and hangout and get the welding kids together and we’ll have bonfires.”
He said he is going to miss the school but is looking forward to the future.
“I spent three years here and showing up here everyday, I don’t know, I am going to miss it for sure but kind of excited to move on and go do bigger and better things,” he said.