SNOW HILL – Students from Worcester Technical High School were again among the top performers at this year’s national SkillsUSA competition.
More than half of the 26 local students who traveled to Louisville, Ky. for the national SkillsUSA Championships, held June 19-23, placed in the top-10 in their divisions. Worcester Tech’s team of eighth-graders took home the gold medal in the middle school engineering challenge while Worcester Tech junior Laila Mirza was named a national officer for the coming year.
“It was hectic but I would not have traded it for the world,” Mirza said. “It was so fulfilling.”
SkillsUSA is a national program that encourages students to honor technical and professional skills that will help them as adults. Known for the red jackets they wear, participating students test their skills in contests ranging from cosmetology to medical math. Competitions are hosted locally, regionally and nationally.
Mirza, who spent her sophomore year as vice president of the state’s SkillsUSA program and her junior year as president of the state program, opted to spend her days in Louisville campaigning for a position as a national SkillsUSA officer.
“It was nerve-racking but it was really fun,” she said, adding that she was one of 12 students who wanted to fill five available seats. “We all decided win or lose it was an exciting experience.”
After three days of meeting with voters and making speeches, Mirza was elected to a seat and then appointed SkillsUSA national parliamentarian for 2017-2018. As a national officer, Mirza will be tasked with representing SkillsUSA students from across the country and organizing annual conferences.
“The organization has given me so much in terms of opportunities and new skills,” Mirza said. “I wanted to be there for the members and give back to the organization that’s given me so much.”
In addition to being elected an officer, Mirza competed in the prepared speech competition and finished fourth. She said it was exciting to watch so many Worcester Tech students earn top-10 placings.
“We all did so well and learned so much,” she said.
She and her peers were particularly excited to see Worcester Tech’s youngest competitors, a trio of eighth-graders from Stephen Decatur Middle School (SDMS), win the middle school engineering challenge.
According to Rick Stephens, Worcester Tech’s SkillsUSA advisor and the SkillsUSA Advisor of the Year for the Maryland Region, the nationwide program has made an effort to expand into middle schools through STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs. With the help of SDMS teacher Trevor Hill, Worcester County was the first school system in the state to develop a team.
SDMS eighth-graders Dylan Arnold, Noah Selt and Judah Morningstar went on to win the gold medal in last week’s national middle school team engineering competition.
“For the competition we had to make a Rube Goldberg machine — a contraption you build that makes a simple task complicated,” Selt said.
Arnold said the team’s contraption included four simple machines and traveled three feet to turn off a light switch.
“It seemed like a challenge at first but we found it was easier as we went on,” Arnold said.
In addition to the excitement of winning a nationwide competition, the young students were exposed to the enthusiasm surrounding SkillsUSA.
“The trip was an awesome experience,” Selt said.
Arnold agreed.
Worcester Tech junior Laila Mirza finished fourth in a speech competition and was named a national officer for the next school year.
“It’s a cool experience even if you don’t win,” he said.
Stephens said he enjoyed watching the way Worcester Tech’s older students interacted with their young cohorts.
“It was really good because they intermixed with the high school kids and they guided them around,” Stephens said.
In addition to Selt, Arnold, Morningstar and Mirza, students who placed in the top-10 in their competitions last week included Daniel Tyndall, Devin Mewborn, Julia Morris, Shawn Mitchell, Makayla Zajdel, Samantha Stephan, Ivy Stearn, Andrew Miller, Kaleb Schmucki, Trevor Moats and Sierra Payne.
Mirza says Stephens deserves much of the credit for Worcester Tech’s SkillsUSA accomplishments.
“He’s one of the reasons Worcester Technical High School is so successful,” she said. “I look to him as someone who inspired me to take the reins and do the best I can.”
Stephens, a welding teacher, has served as a SkillsUSA advisor at Worcester Tech for the past 28 years. During that time, Stephens has helped increase the size of the school’s SkillsUSA chapter from 30 students to more than 200 students.
Stephens says the program has benefitted from the support it receives from the staff at Worcester Tech and the community as a whole. Financial contributions from local residents and businesses made the trip to Louisville possible.
“We do appreciate everyone’s support who helped send us out there,” Stephens said.
