Best And Brightest 2017: Taught To Love Learning, Student Headed For Engineering

This is the ninth of 20 profiles of The Gazette's Best and Brightest Class of 2017. Shepherd Kruse loves rockets. In fact, he has even experimented with making rocket fuel in his mother's kitchen by mixing sugar and potassium nitrate. It even worked after a few attempts. He will point that he hasn't caused kitchen explosions or emergencies. "My passion all throughout high school and before that has just been exploring engineering and more specifically rockets and anything that flies," said Kruse, a home school student. Kruse has taken this love of rockets and shared it by helping to mentor others.