Creativity, Courage and CTE: EPHS Student Takes Learning Beyond the Classroom

For Eagle Point High School junior Kailey Gill, creativity does not always start with a blank canvas. Sometimes, it starts with a welder, a roll cage, and an off-road competition truck named “Flippy.”

Kailey is a student in EPHS teacher Langston’s Welding and Fabrication class, where she is taking on an ambitious project that combines Career and Technical Education skills with a passion she has been developing since she was a child.

Her project is an off-road competition truck originally owned by her dad. Kailey plans to strip much of the existing metal body from the truck, reinforce portions of the roll cage, and rebuild the exterior with new panels.

It is a project that requires more than knowing how to weld. Kailey has to think like a fabricator, identify problems, design solutions, and consider how every decision will affect the truck when it returns to competition.

One of those decisions is whether to weld the new body panels directly to the truck or make them removable with bolts. Kailey is leaning toward removable panels for a very practical reason: damage is part of the sport.

The truck earned its nickname, “Flippy,” because it has rolled more than once during off-road adventures and competitions. Kailey knows firsthand how quickly parts can become damaged. During one competition, a boulder went through the driver-side door, forcing her to stop mid-event.

Instead of seeing that damage simply as a setback, Kailey sees a design challenge.

By fabricating removable panels, damaged sections could be unbolted and replaced instead of requiring her to grind away welded metal and start over. To make that possible, she plans to weld metal mounting tabs onto the roll cage, giving her secure points for the new panels.

That kind of problem-solving is at the heart of CTE at Eagle Point High School. Students are not only learning technical skills, but they are learning how to adapt, create, and turn an idea into something functional.

For Kailey, those lessons also connect to courage.

She first began driving off-road vehicles around age 9 or 10 after being introduced to the sport by her dad. At first, she was scared of it.

That changed when she moved from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat.

Once she began driving, fear turned into excitement, and eventually, competition.

Kailey has now competed in three off-road events, primarily rock-crawling competitions that challenge drivers to navigate difficult terrain while racing against the clock. In her first competition in Myrtle Creek, Kailey finished second.

Now she is bringing those experiences back into the EPHS fabrication shop.

Her first step is removing the doors and existing body panels. From there, she plans to evaluate the roll cage, reinforce portions of it, and begin fabricating the truck’s new exterior.

Every cut, weld, and design decision moves Kailey closer to getting “Flippy” back on the rocks.

More importantly, the project shows what can happen when students are given opportunities to connect what they learn at school with something they genuinely care about.

Through Career and Technical Education and fabrication opportunities at Eagle Point High School, Kailey is building much more than a competition truck. She is building technical skills, confidence, and the ability to tackle a challenge, rethink a problem, and create her own solution.

And when “Flippy” is ready to compete again, Kailey plans to be right where she discovered she belonged years ago: in the driver’s seat.