WINNEMUCCA - Four Lowry High School students brought home four medals from this year's state SkillsUSA competition in Reno.
AJ Jackson won a gold medal for his skill in electrical construction wiring, while TJ Lenhardt won the bronze medal in that category. Louis Brown won a silver medal for building construction, and Rachel Jones won a bronze medal in welding sculpture.
SkillsUSA is a partnership between education and industry to showcase career and technical education students. Each year's state and national competitions offer Career Technical Education (CTE) students the opportunity to exhibit their skills and abilities.
The 11 students that traveled to the SkillsUSA state competition had a great experience showing off the work skills they've gained in CTE classes at the high school.
Lowry welding teacher Andrew Meyer and wood shop and electrical construction teacher Luca Bernardi went with the students to the state competition.
Meyer said, "I was really proud of them. We took a great group this year, in skills and in behavior."
Bernardi commented that the SkillsUSA program is really a great program and great opportunity for CTE students.
Other students who competed included Carlos Aguilar, who placed in the top six students at a regional competition in his individual welding division to be eligible for the state competition. Aguilar had to show his skill by doing different types of welding, taking a written test and interviewing. Rachel Jones was joined by Bradley Schmidt and Anthony Manzo, who also competed in welding sculpture. All three students took their completed sculptures, interviewed and showed a portfolio documenting their process.
Wade Rose competed in power equipment technology by showing his repair skills on small gas engines. In addition to Louis Brown, Ben Tyree and Braxton Paulson also competed in carpentry, reading the plans and building a miniature-sized child's playhouse.
- See MEDALS, Page 16 -
The electrical competition that AJ Jackson, TJ Lenhardt, and Pablo Zabala competed in required then to follow schematics to do inside and outside wiring such as would be used in home construction. They had to read the schematics on their own, choose the materials and tools they needed to do the job, and then complete the wiring.
Meyer said the students' work took an entire day from 8 a.m. to about 4 p.m.
Travel to the state competition with 11 students cost about $3,000 according to Meyer, who said the students did considerable fundraising by selling items they made in the shops including hitch covers, sheds, cutting boards, metal signs, and metal roses.
Since AJ Jackson won the state competition, he will travel to the national competition for all state gold medal winners to be held in Kansas City June 24-28. The cost for that travel is also about $3,000 and the fundraising will continue.
Meyer couldn't be more enthusiastic about the SkillsUSA program and competition.
He said, "It's the opportunity of a lifetime for students to showcase their skills and prepare for everything in the real world." Meyer said the competition, sponsored by industry professionals, features cutting edge technology and the latest equipment in the huge number of skill areas covered. He noted that SkillsUSA competition is available at both the high school level and the college level.
A total of 130 different trade, technical and skilled service and leadership occupations are represented in the SkillsUSA competition, from construction, manufacturing, and transportation, to health sciences, information technology, communications, personal services, hospitality, public safety, and engineering technology.
Several of the students who competed at the state level this year have done so before, and say they want to try again next year. Though Rachel Jones was a little disappointed with her bronze metal award, She's already planning ahead for what she will enter for next year's competition. Jones was so impressed with some of the other students' entries including an angelfish, a human heart, a sea turtle, an aircraft carrier, and a sculpture of a human face: male on one side and female on the other side.
Jones said she particularly enjoyed talking with the other welding sculpture studdents,"It was fascinating," she said, adding, "we all had so much in common and enjoyed talking about the different ways we like to weld."
Gold medal-winner, AJ Jackson was competing for the third time, and will actually have his second opportunity to compete at the national level as well. Although he was awarded the silver medal at a prior state competition, the student who won the gold medal that year couldn't attend national competition and Jackson went in his place. He said the national competition involving 5,600 students was an amazing experience.
Jackson said taking voational classes including woodworking and AutoCAD for all four years he's been in high school has given him a distinct advantage applying as an engineering major at Arizona State University.
Jackson said the industry sponsorship of the national competition amounted to $33 million dollars, "It's great to see how much people involved in these trades are willing to do to encourage and support young people who want to go into the fields," he said.
Excelling in their tech classes has offered another opportunity for Jackson and Lenhardt, who are both doing a Great Basin College - Barrick internship which will allow them to get an associate's degree in one year and have a weekend job at the mines. In addition to the money they make on weekends at the mine, the internship program also gives them a $5,000 scholarship from the mine.
The advantages SkillsUSA involvement offers for their students motivates Meyer and fellow teacher, Bernardi to continue efforts to build the SkillsUSA connection at Lowry. "We want to involve the community more too," said Meyer, "we want to build the SkillsUSA name and help people understand how awesome the opportunities are for the kids.
Meyer added that he's received great support for building the SkillsUSA program from both the high school and school district administration. Meyer, who is in his second year teaching said, "One thing that's great about this district and the high school administration is that everything I've wanted to do has received great support."
Meyer said, "I am where I am, (teaching welding in high school) because of SkillsUSA." "I always knew I wanted to be a teacher," said Meyer, adding, "I just didn't know what I wanted to teach until I learned to weld." Meyer took both gold and bronze medals in state high school SkillsUSA competition and earned a bronze state medal in college SkillsUSA competition.
Does he ever think about the amount of money he could make working in industry with his championship welding skills? Meyer acknowledged, "It's hard not to look at that." But then he said, "For me it's not about the money; for me it's about teaching and making a difference." He asked, "Does that make any sense?"
Yes, Mr. Meyer, that makes a lot of sense.
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