by Kelly Rogge
Students at the Kansas City Kansas Community College’s Technical Education Center have had a successful year and not just in the classroom. The school has 33 medalists in the SkillsUSA program with 12 of them going onto the national competition this summer.
“I think we did great,” said Jake Carmack, major appliance technology/HVACR instructor at KCKCC-TEC as well as the SkillsUSA adviser. “We are really pleased with how well we did, especially with so many of our students going to nationals.”
SkilssUSA is a career and technical student organization in the United States that is geared toward those enrolled in programs for skilled, technical and service occupations. The organization serves more than 300,000 students and instructions each year at the high school and post-secondary level. It also gives industry leaders and opportunity to not only mentor but recruit students into high demand positions.
Students, who wish to compete in SkillsUSA, can do so at the local, state and national level. Categories range from culinary, building maintenance and automotive service technology to basic health care skills, collision repair technology, entrepreneurship and job skill demonstration. The idea is to give students the opportunity to compete in real-world, hands-on situations. First place winners at the state level move onto the SkillsUSA Championships the last week of June in Kansas City.
KCKCC-TEC students that received medals included:
• Ryan Krueger – plumbing, first place.
• Danny Rausch, Jr. – plumbing, first place.
• Horton Ponyell, plumbing, second place.
• Shawn Carter, plumbing, third place.
• Andrea Allen (Contestant) – nail care, first place.
• Savannah Castrol (Model) – nail care, first place.
• Wendy Miranda Alvard (Contestant) – nail care, first place.
• Jocelyn Jones (Model) – nail care, first place.
• Norma Uribe (Contestant) – nail care, second place.
• Gabriela Arzabala (Model) – nail care, second place.
• Megan Ebbert (Contestant) – nail care, second place.
• Etoi King (Model) – nail care, second place.
• Brianna Willcutt (Contestant) – nail care, third place.
• Angelica Cossio Rios (Model) – nail care, third place.
• Yamileth Corderp (Contestant) – nail care, third place.
• Dulce Delacruz (Model) – nail care, third place.
• Daran Powell – restaurant service, first place.
• Kortnee Fielder – cosmetology, first place.
• Dafne Miranda – cosmetology, first place.
• Ann-Druney Prince – cosmetology, second place.
• Eloi Jurariz – cosmetology, third place.
• Santazia Nelson – esthetics, first place.
• MaShayla Hickerson – esthetics, first place.
• Sadie Brouhard – commercial baking, second place.
• Gabriel Nava – commercial baking, second place.
• Wesley Spears – culinary arts, third place.
• Paw Way – culinary arts, third place.
• David Scherer – major appliance, third place.
• Aaron Fible – major appliance, first place.
• David Steffens – major appliance, second place.
• Cierra Ehlers – precision machine, second place.
• Joel Smith – precision machine, third place.
• James Caldwell – carpentry, third place.
All students at the KCKCC-TEC are members of SkillsUSA. However, only around 81 are active in the Kansas SkillsUSA competition. In addition to the national qualifiers, KCKCC-TEC received awards for the highest membership in the state of Kansas for a secondary/post-secondary combined chapter as well as an award for an increase in membership.
Skills USA’s National Conference will be from June 23 to June 27, with the contests being conducted on June 26. This is the last year that the conference will be at Bartle Hall in Kansas City. Competition day is open to the public to observe.
“All of these contests are administered and judged by people from business and industry,” Carmack said. “It helps to bring together people from both sides and gives these business and industry experts an opportunity to find students to be potential employees.”
For more information on the SkillsUSA program at KCKCC-TEC, contact Carmack at 913-288-7858 or by email at [email protected].
