{"id":672,"date":"2021-11-09T11:57:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T16:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/magazine-2021\/?p=672"},"modified":"2024-08-12T14:16:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T18:16:31","slug":"sparking-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/magazine-2021\/2021\/11\/sparking-creativity\/","title":{"rendered":"Sparking Creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Kris Albro, \u201917, can take the heat. The 32-year-old graduate has worn a variety of hats ranging from firefighter to F-16 Air Force mechanic and bodybuilder to automotive shop co-owner. Now, she sports a 3M Speedglas welding hood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe spectrum of what you can accomplish in the welding\nindustry is so big. It\u2019s not your father\u2019s welder anymore. It\u2019s a very\ndifferent culture in a different playing field. And women are welcome 100%.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Albro returned to civilian life following a\nthree-year career in the U.S. Air Force, she discovered that she missed the\nmilitary mindset, so she enrolled in The Citadel\u2019s veteran day program, where\nshe majored in criminal justice with a minor in intelligence and homeland\nsecurity. \u201cThe biggest thing is to get your degree,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause that\nteaches you so much.\u201d The Citadel helped her develop her patience,\nopen-mindedness and leadership skills, and now she\u2019s in her element when she\u2019s\nmentoring others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After graduating, she became a co-owner of an\nautomotive repair shop before her artistic yearnings led her on the path to a\ncareer in welding. She credits Arclabs Welding School in Hanahan for honing her\nwelding skills in both utilitarian and artistic fabrication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Albro had spent two years fabricating for a light fixture company when she received a call from her former Arclabs instructor, who told her it was time to come home and teach. \u201cTeaching, like most things in my life,\u201d she says, \u201cseemed to find me somehow\u2014somehow weasel its way into my brain.\u201d She recently succeeded in mentoring one of her own students on his path to certification through the American Welding Society for two forms of welding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/magazine-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/211\/Kris-Albro-Inside.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-87\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\"\/><figcaption>Kris Albro, \u201917, a veteran graduate and professional welder, teaches welding to high school students in Grants Pass, Oregon. Credit: Cameron Pollack \/ The Citadel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe knocked it out of the park,\u201d says Albro. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen anyone bloom and gain confidence and just figure it out like he has.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Albro has always had an artistic streak. In high\nschool, she painted with acrylics. Later, she became interested in sculpture,\nand today, she incorporates a variety of metals into her sculptural expertise\nand has been experimenting with copper in particular. She is well versed in gas\nmetal arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding, shielded metal arc welding and\nflux-cored arc welding. She\u2019ll implement whichever of these methods is most\nappropriate for the project. However, she most enjoys teaching shielded metal\narc welding because students delight in its being \u201clike a really big sparkler.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2019, Albro started her own business, Meltdown Metal\nArt, where she accepts commissions to make custom art. \u201cTime is the most difficult\nthing about that business\u2014making sure you can balance work, life, a side\nbusiness and give clients appropriate expect-by dates.\u201d When projects take\nlonger than planned, Albro recalculates and does what is needed to get the job\ndone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hiccups are to be expected. One time, her mother\naccidentally backed her car over one of her projects. \u201cShe didn\u2019t see it in the\ndriveway and backed right over it.\u201d Albro now laughs when recalling this moment\nbecause that piece of artwork, a sign, was already rather flat. Most of her\nnature-inspired metal work is more three-dimensional, including blooming\nflowers and vibrant wine toppers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Albro\u2019s best advice to young artists:&nbsp; \u201cWhen you\u2019re frustrated, slow down. If I\u2019m\nfrustrated, my vision\u2019s already cloudy for the piece because I\u2019m angry at it,\nand I really don\u2019t care about it right now because it\u2019s making me so mad. So a\nlot of times, the best thing you can do is just stop, walk away for an hour or\na day. Sometimes it\u2019s been a week that I\u2019ve had to walk away from stuff and\nthen come back with fresh eyes to reevaluate what the problem is and how to fix\nit.\u201d Albro also takes this approach to her interpersonal relationships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She continues to be impressed and surprised with the\nwelding communities online. True, she is on a first-name basis with industry\nleaders from companies like CK Worldwide, but what she finds more meaningful is\nthe mentoring she is able to give the young people seeking her guidance. \u201cI\u2019ve\nbeen mentoring mostly young girls all over the country who are often in rural\nareas and don\u2019t necessarily have the exposure to other females in the\nblue-collar industries.\u201d She has even helped students in Europe learn how to\nweld via video call. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Albro&#8217;s next adventure: teaching high school welding in\nOregon, a state that she had never been to before. \u201cI was offered the job on a\nThursday around 4 p.m. I flew out at 5 a.m. on Friday. I shook his hand on\nSunday, agreed to take the job and put in my notice at my other job on Monday.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She looks forward to meeting her new students and\nadjusting to the slightly drier climate more favorable to flux, which controls\nthe flow of the molten metal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Albro\u2019s creativity keeps her on the move. This next adventure is sure to spark her passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Alaina Rink earned her undergraduate degree from the College of Charleston in secondary education English and taught in the Charleston area for four years. She is currently working as a graduate assistant in the Office of Communications and Marketing while pursuing a master\u2019s degree in English.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kris Albro, \u201917, can take the heat. The 32-year-old graduate has worn a variety of hats ranging from firefighter to F-16 Air Force mechanic and bodybuilder to automotive shop co-owner. Now, she sports a 3M Speedglas welding hood. \u201cThe spectrum of what you can accomplish in the welding industry is so big. It\u2019s not your [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":694,"featured_media":618,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.8 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sparking Creativity - The Citadel Magazine 2021<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/magazine-2021\/2021\/11\/sparking-creativity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sparking Creativity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kris Albro, \u201917, can take the heat. 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