Kent ISD — No one was perhaps more surprised to see that Kruesie Bulthuis had taken Overall State Champion at the Michigan Industrial & Technology Education Society’s annual competition than Kruesie.
“I was hoping for third, maybe,” said the South Christian High School senior. “I got there and I was first in category A and all that stuff, and it was like ‘Wow.’ It’s crazy.’”
Kruesie created his winning piece, “Texas Longhorn,” in Kent Career Tech Center’s welding technology program.
The sculpture, which beat out about 100 pieces for the top spot, is the skeleton head of a Texas Longhorn. It weighs more than 90 pounds and is 5 feet, 11 inches from horn tip to horn tip. Kruesie said the skull was hand cut and its design done with handheld tools.
Kruesie said it took about 78 hours to complete the sculpture: four hours a week for 17 weeks in class and about 10 hours outside of school.
Kruesie said he plans to hang his winning piece in his garage for now.
‘It’s physically active, as opposed to sitting behind a desk. It’s cool to know that I’m making something bigger than myself.’
— senior Kruesie Bulthuis
How old were you when welding became something you wanted to pursue, and what’s the story there? He took his first welding class at South Christian his freshman year.
“I really liked it. I liked being just around all the super-hot metal and having something super small that you can focus on and not have to worry about everything else. You just have to worry about that one weld that you’re doing (at the) time. So in my sophomore year, I took Advanced Metals at South, and then I enrolled for this program (at the Tech Center) and went here last year and this year. I also have a job at Van Dellen Steel.”
Related accomplishments: For the 2024 MITES competition, Kruesie’s crow skull sculpture took second place at regionals and honorable mention at state.
Is there a teacher or teachers who have had a big impact? “My South teacher (Josh Klomp) is a really good welder, and he always encouraged us to be better. … That was really inspirational.”
With the crow skull last year, he said Tech Center instructor Erik Dedenbach helped a lot “with figuring out how to make flat shapes into three-dimensional shapes, and how to think about things just a little bit differently.”
Do you plan to pursue this professionally? If so, envision yourself 10/20 years from now: Kruesie said he plans to stay at Van Dellen, but is open to other opportunities.
“I kind of fell into this. When I was younger, like middle school, I thought about being an engineer or something along that line, where I could design and figure out how to make things work. I really enjoy welding. It’s physically active, as opposed to sitting behind a desk. It’s cool to know that I’m making something bigger than myself.
“At Van Dellen right now, we’re working (at) a couple of middle schools. We’ve done hospitals, parking garages and just really impressive stuff that nobody could do by themselves. I think it’s really cool to be involved in something like that.”
Other hobbies/interests: Kruesie has bowled at South Christian for the past three years. He was involved in robotics his freshman and sophomore years, has participated in school plays and enjoys woodworking.
The biggest lesson you have learned from your involvement in welding is… “You’ve got to work with people, even if you’re not in the same room, working next to them. You have to be able to understand what has to happen. I worked in concrete for the last three years, and you always had to be right next to people doing the same thing, but with welding, you (have) to be spread out (but) still working together.”
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