SKILLSUSA DISTRICT COMPETITION RESULTS

SkillsUSA is an organization creating a partnership of students, teachers and industry representatives working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. SkillsUSA impacts the lives of America’s future workforce through the development of personal, workplace, and technical skills grounded in academics.

SkillsUSA is an applied method of instruction for preparing America’s high-performance workers in public career and technical programs. It provides quality educational experiences for students in leadership, teamwork, citizenship and character development. It builds and reinforces self-confidence, work attitudes and communications skills. It emphasizes total quality at work including: high ethical standards, superior work skills, life-long education, and pride in the dignity of work.

The SkillsUSA District 1 Competition looked very different this year. Each school in District 1 held their own Virtual Competition at their own schools. At Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech on February 26, 2021.  64 students from GNB Voc-Tech competed against the following District 1 Schools: Blue Hills RTHS, Cape Cod RTHS, Old Colony RTHS, Plymouth North High School, Plymouth South High School, Silver Lake Regional High School, South Shore VTHS, Taunton HS and Upper Cape Cod RTHS. For the
most part the students used the cafeteria for this second step in the competition process. The first step was a local competition held within the school. This second step is the written portion of the competition where competitors are tested in their trade area, professional development and safety & health. All gold medalists, most silver medalists and some bronze medalists will continue to the state competition which will be done either virtually at GNBVT or hands-on in Marlborough, Massachusetts over a three week period in April and May.

Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School’s results are following:

Overall results:

• 8 Gold Medalists
• 7 Silver Medalists
• 10 Bronze Medalists
• 1 State Officer Candidates

Gold medalists:
Kameron Nelson – Automated Manufacturing Design – Advisor: Tom Canastra
John Marques – Automated Manufacturing Design – Advisor: Tom Canastra
Ian Costa – Automated Manufacturing Design – Advisor: Tom Canastra
Max Soares – Cabinet Making – Advisor: Joe Arruda
Angeli Santiago – CNC Turning Specialist – Advisors: Kevin Richard & Maurice Bergeron
Casey Dean – First Aid/CPR – Advisor: Patty Allen
Chelsea Martinez – Medical Math – Advisor: Erin Marcotte
Faythe Amaral – Restaurant Service – Advisors: Joanne O’Neil & Jason Cieto

Silver medalists:
Abigail Souza – Basic Health Care – Advisor: Mary Beth Vargas – Qualifier for States
Kaitlyn Tremblay – CNC Turning Specialist – Advisors: Kevin Richard & Maurice Bergeron
Domenic Dos Santos – Criminal Justice – Advisor: Patty Allen – Qualifier for States
Scott Sanders – Diesel Equipment Technology – Advisor: Serge Moniz – Qualifier for States
Michaela Barreira – Early Childhood Education – Advisors: Yasmin Flefleh-Vincent & Deb Brightman –Qualifier for States
Evan Canuel – Power Equipment Technology – Advisor: Paul Estrella – Qualifier for States
Alex Gwozdz – Welding Sculpture – Advisor: Steve Flowers – Qualifier for States

Bronze medalists:
Benjamin Farland – Additive Manufacturing – Advisor: Tom Canastra
Ryan Faria – Additive Manufacturing – Advisor: Tom Canastra
Johanna Perche – Customer Service – Advisor: Amy Corriveau
Jayde Bousquet – Digital Cinema – Advisor: Jenn Gaspar
Eli Dearden – Digital Cinema – Advisor: Jenn Gaspar
Jacob Reimels – Marine Service Technology – Advisor: Michael McConnell – Qualifier for States
Jenna Medeiros – Medical Assisting – Advisor: Pauline O’Brien
Carla Da Silva – Sheet Metal – Advisor: Dennis Tetreault
Christopher Pereira – Urban Search & Rescue – Advisor: Anthony Cabral
Cody Raposa – Urban Search & Rescue – Advisor: Anthony Cabral

State Officer Candidate:
Kara Koska – State Officer Candidate – Advisor: Lori Russell-Pelsue
Qualifiers for States – Non-Medalists
Jordan Melo – Marine Service Technology – Advisor: Michael McConnell — Qualifier for States
Luc Porto – Marine Service Technology – Advisor: Michael McConnell — Qualifier for States

We are extremely proud of the student’s accomplishments with 36% of the students that competed going home with a medal. We are looking forward to attending the State Competition with them from April 12 – May 4, 2021.

Click here to view “SkillsUSA 2021 District Contest Results”

SAiL (Senior Adventures in Leadership) Conference

This virtual conference held on February 11, 2021 was focused on our seniors who will graduate with seemingly limitless opportunities for quality employment largely due to the drastic skills gap in today’s workforce. However, to best serve our graduates, we, as an organization, must ask "has their education been effective at combining relevant workplace skills with CTE and academic standards?" SkillsUSA business partners and program graduates will help ensure the answer is "yes" by sharing several timely resources and experiences that support the framework of SkillsUSA's mission, which includes personal, workplace, and technical skills grounded in academics – designed to assist our seniors with successful transition from CTE to college and careers ensuring every SkillsUSA member is “Job-Ready, Day One.”

Seniors – Michaela Barreira, Ramon Corado, James Dant, Rebecca Mejia & Natalie Portal attended the all day virtual conference with workshops in:

• Your Best Foot Forward – Resumes, Cover Letters & Marketing Yourself – Learning how to craft/improve résumés, leveraging electronic options, and developing a personal marketing toolkit.
• College and a Career #reallife – Learning the strategies and options for staying in school when reality happens. #reallife
• Financial Literacy – Improving your financial literacy and learning the steps to a financially secure future.
• Community Engagement for Life – Learning the skills & strategies of being a quality employee and citizen.
• Navigating Networking – Learning the skills of employer networking and relationship building.

During these workshops, the students learned valuable life skills and some earned awards. Muster Master Participation Awards went to Ramon Corado, James Dant and Michaela Barreira. The following students earn SAiL Graduate Proficiency Credentials: Michaela Barreira, Natalie Portal & Ramon Corado. All of our students attended a graduation ceremony and received graduation certificates and graduation sashes.