Wren Miller is a rising star in the world of welding. The Midlands Tech student has already achieved YouTube fame as champion of the reality series “Clash of the Grinders,” a metalworking and welding competition sponsored by 3M and Linde. And this summer, he’ll vie to keep his title as one of the nation’s top student welders in the SkillsUSA National Championships in Atlanta.

Confession: We binge-watched “Clash of the Grinders: Season 2,” which featured you and 11 other student welders from across the US. It was a compelling series that showcased so much exceptional metalworking talent. Tell us about that experience.

It surprised me to be picked for the 3M competition because when I applied, I thought, I’m probably not gonna get this. There’s already, like, 140 applicants, and they’re only picking 12. But I got accepted!

They flew us out to Minnesota, where 3M is headquartered, for a weeklong competition. My competitors and I settled into our hotel rooms and then went out to dinner, where 3M explained everything and showed us all the prizes.

Each day of the competition, we had different challenges to complete. We started with team challenges and then individual challenges, and the number of points we earned determined whether we made it to the semifinals, which was the top six, and then the finals, which was the top three.

I placed first and got a nice $15,000 check, along with some 3M products and Linde gear. And at night, they took us to dinner and a baseball game or an arcade. It was pretty sweet!

Wren was the winner of Round 2, a beveling challenge, and Round 3, a weld grind and finish challenge. He continued to the Semifinal Round by assembling and finishing a 6-side die, and he clinched the championship by turning raw materials and blueprints into a rocket stove – which competitors later fired up for a celebratory round of s’mores.

Judges repeatedly used the word “impressive” to describe his work, with Mark Lukowski, an Abrasive Solutions Product Developer with 3M, saying that Wren often “chose the hardest path” and Mackenzie Waldon, a 3M Abrasive Solutions Marketer, describing his approach as “very methodical.”

Fellow competitor Sebastian Nelson described Wren as “a silent, ambitious person…. Those are the people to watch out for… While you’re doing your stuff and they’re just relaxing, they’re thinking of how they’re going to get past you.”

Would you say that Sebastian’s assessment of you was correct?

Yeah. It’s kind of hard to get me nervous. I’ve seen a lot of people get nervous. They’re good welders, but when they get nervous, they mess up. So I always try to stay real calm.

But at the same time, I put a lot of responsibility on myself. With welding, it’s really just you. So if you mess up a weld, it’s on you. I want to take pride in all my welds, so I try not to cut anything too short and make it sloppy.

I’ve always had a strong work ethic. I can’t really be behind a computer for too long without twiddling my thumbs; I like to be in the field working with my hands. And welding takes a lot of practice because you can’t just get it right on your first try. The more you practice now, the better off you’ll be later. If you’re lazy now, it’s going to be harder later. That’s how I think about things when I try to manage the pressure.

Where does your strong work ethic come from?

I’d probably say my dad. Ever since I was young, he’s always pushed me and my brother to be the best, to participate in competitions and try to win at everything we do. He’s the one who pushed me to go to college to get my degree. I was set on not going to college and instead going straight into the field. But looking back at his advice, it was smart.

I started welding in middle school, when I was gifted a welder by my neighbor. I taught myself the basics, and then in high school, I got a deeper summary of it. But going to Midlands and combining the class time with the welding time has really let me go in-depth on techniques. I’ve learned so much about weld testing processes, blueprint reading, pipe welding. Those are things I didn’t necessarily get to do in high school, so it’s really setting me up for the job force.

Welding is also big on connections, so that’s another thing that’s good about Midlands. They have so many connections, and the instructors help you out a lot – especially if you want to find nuclear welding jobs or huge pipeline jobs – something beyond what’s on Indeed or ZipRecruiter.

With Midlands opening those doors, what kind of opportunity are you hoping to land next?

One of my welding instructors could possibly get me a test for VC Summer, which is a nuclear facility. I’m really hoping to get on there. But if I don’t, I’ve also been looking at SpaceX. I want to do something cool and fun, something that’s different every day – and something that pays good money!

What do you do when you’re not in class or welding?

I like to fish. I’ve got two boats – one that I use for being out on the lake and a duck hunting one. I bought it for, like, a thousand dollars and flipped it, sealed up the leaks, welded it back up. I fixed it up to be a real nice boat, and I do a bunch of bow fishing off that one during the spring.

We can’t wait to see how Wren performs at the upcoming SkillsUSA National Championships and hope to see him on the world stage this fall!

Watch “Clash of the Grinders: Season 2” and see Wren in action