Arlington Career Center Students Win National SkillsUSA Awards Arlington Career Center student Pablo Wilson was awarded the First Place Gold Medal in Medical Math at the annual National Leadership and Skills Conference and SkillsUSA Championships. Additionally, Daniela Londono, Brian McTyre, Alex Pageotte and Fernando Rocha were awarded the Second Place Silver Medal in the Broadcast News Contest. The competitions were held at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky on June 22-23, 2016. The Medical Math contest is a 50-question test with all questions requiring multi-step work. Students have only four hours to complete the test. Topics include dosages, conversions between English and metric units, intravenous measurements, and pharmaceutical calculations for children and adults. Junior Wilson’s Forensic Science teacher, Anne Cupero felt that he has the skills to go far with his math background, stating, “Wilson went straight from winning first at SkillsUSA to enrolling in a workshop at Northern Virginia Community College because of his love for the subject.” The Broadcast News contest is a four-member team contest where two team members serve as the anchor team, one as the floor director and the other as the team’s director. The team is evaluated on their broadcast writing ability, time management, directing, proper use of hand signals, performance techniques, and teamwork. All teams received an identical “hard copy” of 24 various newswire service printouts. Their initial task was to determine the top stories of the day, and put them in order of importance. Next, working against the clock, they had to rewrite the stories, and then perform a three-minute professional news broadcast in one live take. Juniors McTyre and Rocha were the news anchors and junior Londono acted as the floor director and relayed cues from junior Pageotte who served as the director. Pageotte also had the responsibility of switching from the three different camera angles, and adding action clips with titles. Television Production Instructor, Tom O’Day felt that the students’ hard work helped set them apart from the rest of the field.”This team spent many hours practicing their writing and performances in the hotel room everyday while they were in Louisville. They put in this extra work which makes this award even more gratifying for them.” This is the second year in a row that a Career Center Broadcast News team has won at the national level in SkillsUSA. Last year they were awarded the 3rd place bronze medal. Other students that placed in the national top 10, included:
- Nikolai Karamyshev and Bryce Rusk – 7th Place, Television (Video) Production
- Flor Caceres-Godoy and Alondra Duarte Pena – 9th Place, Audio/Radio Production
Other student competitors included:
- Flora Hepp – Medical Terminology
- Rodrigo Hernandez-Martinez – Electrical Construction Wiring
The SkillsUSA Championships is considered the largest single day of corporate volunteerism in America and valued at more than $36 million in industry support of donated time, equipment, cash and material. All contests are run by and judged by industry using industry standards for employment. All winners receive medallions and frequently receive tools of their trade and/or scholarships to further their careers and education. The SkillsUSA Championships is for high-school and college-level students who are members of SkillsUSA. More than 6,000 students from every state and two territories competed in 100 contests in technical, skilled, and service occupations, including health occupations this year. In order to qualify for the national competition, the students competed in local and state contests. The state gold medal winners advanced to the national SkillsUSA Championships.
