District Five students rack up hardware at the SkillsUSA Championships

IRMO – Three students in District Five can now say they had a spot on the podium. The Center for Advanced Technical Studies (CATS) students Ashley “AJ” Amick, Austin Carnes and Alexis DeJesus each were named “Bronze Winners” at the national SkillsUSA Championships held on June 22-23 in Louisville, KY. This marks the most winners ever for District Five at the competition.

DeJesus placed third in Advertising Design. “I chose Alexis for this competition because she has what it takes to win,” CATS Digital Art & Design instructor Lauren Landers said. “I am not surprised by these achievements. She left the competition and went straight to a six-week camp at the Carnegie Mellon Pre-College Fine Arts Program for art and design, of which she received a full-ride. She is dedicated and driven, and I can’t wait to see where her character and talents take her!”

“I was very excited and honored to represent The Center and South Carolina at SkillsUSA and bring back a bronze,” Alexis said. “Before it, I hadn’t participated in a formal design competition and it was a great experience.”

Amick and Carnes took third place in Mechatronics. “I am so proud of how AJ and Austin represented themselves at this competition,” CATS Mechatronics Instructor Steve White said. “Their bronze achievements are the perfect example of how hard they have worked in the classroom and it shows the passion they have for Mechatronics.”

In addition to the three winners, CATS had a total of 11 students represented at the competition. Those students included Katelyn Bosma and Kendal Stoutenburg (Mobile Robotics), Zheyuan Xue (Internetworking), Paul Gagliano (Automotive Service Technology), Jessica Bradley and Kyle Cope (Audio/Radio Production) and Lauren Folsom and Samantha Koenig (TV Video Production).

“We cannot be more proud of our winners and all of our students who represented CATS in a first-class manner at the SkillsUSA Championships in Louisville,” Director of CATS Dr. Bob Couch said when asked about the recent accomplishments. “We believe this will be the first of many more winners in the upcoming years at this competition.”

The SkillsUSA Championships are competitive events showcasing the best career and technical education students in the nation. Contests begin locally and continue through the state and national levels. This is a multi-million-dollar event that occupies a space equivalent to 16 football fields. In 2015, there were more than 6,000 contestants in 100 separate events. Nearly 1,500 judges and contest organizers from labor and management make the national event possible. The philosophy of the Championships is to reward students for excellence, to involve industry in directly evaluating student performance and to keep training relevant to employers’ needs.

Over 52 states and U.S. territories were represented at the event as the Kentucky Exposition Center hosted more than 10,000 students, advisors, administrators and vendors during the competition. Students were afforded the opportunity not only to compete on a national level, but they also benefitted from networking with other competitors from across the country as well as their advisors and industry vendors eager to interact with those representing the country’s next generation of talented and skilled workers.