“What I love most about being a skilled trades teacher is having the opportunity to inspire students to explore and discover their passions, to recognize their skillsets, abilities, and talents, and connect them to real world 21st century internships and careers in the welding industry and skilled trades. As we prepare students for their futures, I love to watch them dream, grow, create and succeed as they turn their passions into real careers.”
Laurie Hilderbrand teaches welding at Soquel High School in Soquel, California. Hilderbrand fell in love with “iron and steel” in her hometown of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, where the architecture teemed with interesting metal work. When she went to community college, she fell in love with welding, kickstarting a path that would lead her to teaching art and welding at Soquel High School for 16 years. Hilderbrand took charge of the welding program at Soquel High School in 2015, where she makes an impact on her students everyday.
Hilderbrand gives her welding students the freedom to craft a project-based learning experience from concept to design to fabrication and testing. Her class is not only aligned with California College and Career Ready Anchor Skills standards, but also welding, manufacturing and product development industry standards. Welding students complete these project-based assignments from freshman to senior year in order to show their mastery of the curriculum. One year, a student who now studies engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo built a steel guitar. This project, which the student worked on from the blueprint stage to hand-cutting plasma cutting and welding the pieces together, demonstrated where hand-on-learning, technical skills and creativity align. With the industry connections that Hilderbrand brings to the classroom, many of her students graduate prepared to study engineering, trades or start their own business straight out of high school.
Notes of Excellence
- Hilderbrand is on her school district’s CTE Advisory Board Committee, meeting four to six times per year with industry partners and stakeholders to improve their programs.
- In her free time, Hilderbrand fabricates artistic metal sculptures that she sells at art and trade shows.
- Hilderbrand has an A.S. in Liberal Arts, Welding, and Ornamental Iron, a B.S. in Career & Technical Education (with a focus on welding), and a master’s in education in STEAM from the University of San Diego, among other certifications.