Photo courtesy of Northwood High School
SkillsUSA club competed in the regional SkillsUSA competition in Fayetteville March 3. The team achieved first and fifth place in CPR, first place in Carpentry One, second, third and fourth place in Carpentry Two, fourth place in Firefighting and fifth place in Tool ID.
SkillsUSA is an organization that helps students specialize in a specific category of expertise, and the variety of categories that students can participate in ranges from computer programming to baking to nail care. Students involved with a SkillsUSA chapter at their school train in one of these categories in order to compete with students from other schools around the state at the regional and state competitions.
DeLisa Cohen, career development coordinator at Northwood, chaperoned at the regional SkillsUSA competition for the first time.
“What’s so interesting about SkillsUSA is that it’s such a wide variety of professions that kids can compete in,” Cohen said. “It’s so neat to see all these kids come together as professionals and competing and networking with other kids who have the same interest.”
A number of students involved with SkillsUSA ˛ participated in the competition, including senior Savannah Little, who placed fourth in the Firefighting competition. Little says that because of the many areas of expertise that SkillsUSA includes, there is room for anyone who wants to join.
“It’s a really diverse club…. We have everything from cosmetology to baking, public speaking, criminal justice, CPR and firefighting,” Little said. “So if you’re in a student-led organization, it’s pretty much the club you want to be in.”
Preparation for the competition is unique to each category, but Little said that her preparation included her usual firefighting training.
“Personally, I’ve just been doing training at my fire department and going to community college classes at night,” Little said. “A lot of the events line up with that training and is based off of that training.”
Senior Mason Hux was a representative at the regional competition, and will compete in the state competition at Greensboro under the CPR category.
“First I have to get certified; my uncle is a firefighter, so he’s gonna help me get certified,” Hux said. “Then, I have to study over the events and get ready for the trip to Greensboro.”
Walter Stone, who participated in the regional competition and placed fourth in Carpentry Two, said that his experience was stressful because participants are judged based on how quickly they complete their assigned task.
“This is my first year in Skills; it’s stressful,” Stone said. “You don’t really have time to mess up, but when you do, you have to fix it as fast as you can.”
The SkillsUSA state competition will be held at the Greensboro Coliseum April 26-28.
– By Carolyn Hammond
