VICA students place at state, advance to nationals

The McDonald Career Center on the College of Eastern Utah campus was devoid of students last weekend when they competed at the 2004 Skills USA Competition hosted by Salt Lake Community College and won numerous awards.
CEU and Carbon High School vocational students competed in the two-day competition, which matched students from all of the higher education institutions with vocational programs from throughout the state. According to Lon Youngberg, CEU welding instructor, the schools with the best participation included Southern Utah University, Weber State University, Utah Valley Community College, SLCC and the applied technology centers at Bridgerland, Davis, Uintah and Ogden-Weber.
Students placing first from CEU included Kelly Brinkerhoff in diesel equipment technology, Keith Mortensen in job skill demonstration, Jessica Silver in nail care, and Cole Murray in welding.
Shenna McKeachnie, cosmetology, was CEU’s only second place finisher.
Third place recipients included Michelle Carter in extemporaneous speaking; Amaraa Torgerson, nail care; Melissa Powell, related technical math; Cassandra Weltry, creative hair and color design; and the team of Isaura Caballo, McKette Cox, Jennifer Erkkila, Ashley McFarlane, Lauri Palacios, BreAnna Sherman, and Lacy Smith in the opening and closing ceremonies.
The four-first place winners will compete at the SkillsUSA national competition in Kansas City Missouri, June 21-25, 2004. SkillsUSA is a national organization serving over a quarter million high school and college students and professional members enrolled in a training programs in technical skills and service organizations, including health occupations. It has 13,000 chapters and 54 state and territorial associations.
SkillsUSA is an organization that provides quality education experience for students in leadership, teamwork, citizenship and character development. It emphasizes quality at work, high ethical standards, superior work skills, lifelong education and pride in the dignity of work. It also promotes understanding of the free-enterprise system and involvement in community service.
The programs include local, state and national competitions in which students demonstrate occupational and leadership skills.
On the national level, there are more than 75 occupational and leadership skill areas. SkillsUSA programs also help establish industry standards for job skill training in the classroom.
According to Linda Davis, CEU cosmetology instructor, “despite Utah’s relatively small population, we have a tradition of bringing home the most medals from the national competition.”