VHS welders create metal art decoration at Tomé Elementary

TOMÉ — Many welders leave their marks in the metal they work with and then move on. Fourteen student welders from Valencia High School left their mark with art at Tomé Elementary School at the end of this past school year.

Led by VHS welding instructor Justin Brown and senior Zaylon Zamora, a former student at Tomé Elementary, students from the welding program crafted four large metal letters to be displayed in front of the school. The letters were recently installed at the school, located just southwest of Tomé Hill.

The VHS program is a dual credit program with UNM-Valencia Campus, Brown explained. Students are taught “everything from basic blueprinting all the way through high-frequency TIG welding,” which includes learning to weld aluminum and stainless steel. Students finish with one semester that can be used for an internship.

The project is a culmination of sorts for Brown, who graduated from Hagerman High School and attended Eastern New Mexico before settling in Valencia County. He said he was on a fishing trip when he got a call and was offered a position at Belen High School.

Brown said he “jumped right in. No student teaching, no nothing. Just in headfirst,” and ended up spending 15 years at BHS as a teacher and FFA sponsor. At midsemester 3 1/2 years ago, he got an offer to move to VHS and lead an entire program.

The current letter-making project “started out as just finding something for them to fabricate design. You know, something to apply their skills as if they were in an internship” for students who weren’t able” to secure an internship, Brown said.

He said word spread of the VHS welders staff through the district and the maintenance began calling Brown for odd jobs here and there. In the spring semester of this school year, the maintenance department contacted VHS about a larger project — the metal art for Tomé Elementary.

“They hit me up and said, ‘You know we just redid the entryway at (Tomé),” Brown said. “We removed some grass and put in some gravel and it’s kinda blah. It needs a little pizazz. Would you guys be interested in doing some art work for it?’ And I said heck yeah!”

Soon Brown found that one of his students, Zamora, had attended Tomé, which gave the project some grounding.

“We had one student (Zamora) that actually attended elementary at Tomé, so that’s pretty cool that he got to go back to his old elementary and install something for them to enjoy, you know, for generations.”

The month-long project has turned out so well, that Brown said plans are in the works to have the Valencia High welding students produce art for every elementary school in the district.

“It may not be as big as what the Tomé Elementary sign is, but it is something for (our students) to give back to their elementary,” he said. “So from here on out, every year we’ll have some kind of metal artwork or metal structure or something that seniors from Valencia High School will contribute to the community.”