In SkillsUSA, students learn important skills they will need when they enter the workforce. It is mainly CTE (Career and Technical Education) focused. However, it isn’t limited to only CTE skills; it also includes CAD (Computer-Aided Design), mechanics, and teaching.
State SkillsUSA consists mainly of individual and team contests. Every student who attends is given their own schedule to follow for Monday and Tuesday. The award ceremony on Wednesday follows these busy days.
The Quiz Bowl competition is a buzzer-based competition during which a team of students competes against another team. The students are quizzed on academics, professional development, and current events.
“My schedule was pretty action-packed the first day,” freshman Huston Dearcorn said. “I started out with related technical math at 2:30 and moved on to the most chaotic event of the whole competition, Quiz Bowl (which we won).”
State SkillsUSA provides an opportunity to connect with other students and schools across the state, along with an energizing environment for students to experience healthy competition. They improve their own skills by pushing each other to the next level.
“Honestly, I enjoyed hanging around with all of my friends and everybody,” senior Mason Coombs said. “So, I’m in robotics, and for our chapter display project, you had to build a thing that’s 36 by 36 by 36 inches. We did kind of a cowboy Zoltar project; the fortune teller for this year’s theme was ‘champion your future.’ I had to learn how to solder a bunch of wires in and code on Arduinos to make lights light up and to make it display on a screen.”
The winning Quiz Bowl team consisted of students junior Mackenzie Legeler, junior Aubrey Bear, sophomore Tyler Kruger, freshman Huston Dearcorn, and freshman Hayden Peters. They fought their way to victory against their competitors and represented Powell High School with pride.
”Winning the Quiz Bowl was my favorite part since that was the first-ever Quiz Bowl Powell win,” Peters said. ”It will help me prepare for the CTE workforce, and it will help me develop crucial life skills.”
Not only do students learn career skills, but they also learn important academic skills. The students get to be in a place where they are able to learn how to react in different situations. Beyond preparing them for the workforce, it prepares them for life.
“I learned to keep my cool in heated situations,” Dearcorn said. “Like Quiz Bowl, to be patient, and most importantly, how to make good choices now to ‘Champion my Future,’ as they say, and make the most out of my choices and other things now to have a better future.”
Programs like SkillsUSA help students in a very specific way. It enables students to get a glimpse of life after high school.
“SkillsUSA is very important because it’s centered around preparing kids for the workplace, people are likely going to be working most of their adult lives,” Dearcorn said. “When a job is your main source of income, it’s crucial to be prepared and know what’s to come to earn that money and make a living. Alumni and current students are always there and ready to give advice on what to do and ways to make your future better. The framework of course makes all aspects of your workplace life and skillset stronger, more proficient, and more manageable.”
SkillsUSA is impactful in students’ lives, preparing them for what comes after school. It shows them the importance of learning career-based skills that will help them flourish in the workforce.
“I think SkillsUSA will help understand and unlock a skill that you have, had, or currently have,” Coombs said. “I know I wouldn’t have got more into hobbyist electronics if I didn’t do that project until later. So, it’s opened up a bunch of doors, and I’m planning on doing a lot of things with that. Plus, most of the time, if it’s not really Speech and Debate or robotics, we don’t really have places to compete, especially in Powell.”
