SkillsUSA team advances to state March 26

The SkillsUSA chapter brought home a total of 14 gold, silver and bronze medals after their recent wins during the district five competition in Waco.

The students competed in eight different contests, as individuals and teams. In the emblem ceremony competition seniors Galilea Monterroso, Merlynne Penequito and freshman Haley Proctor won first. Seniors Austin Conley and Erica Muhlbauer won first place in the felony traffic stop competition. In the early childhood education competition, senior Christi Reid took first. Second place in building search was taken by seniors Weldon Hembree, Monterroso, Muhlbauer and freshman Proctor. Conley took home second in individual criminal justice and third place in crime scene investigation went to seniors Rebekah Porter, Nicole Norenberg and Cindy Moreno. Proctor was also elected to serve on the 2015-2016 SkillsUSA Texas District 5 Officer Team. She will attend training during the summer and attend Washington Leadership Training Institute in Washington, D.C. in September.

“I am very proud of the students for their dedication to practice and preparing for contests and the extra effort they put into being prepared,” SkillsUSA advisor David Lanman said. “It was extremely satisfying to see seniors who are in a forensic science class, and have never taken a criminal justice class, show the enthusiasm and dedication to learn all the procedures and tactics needed to win like they did. However, I expected nothing less.”

SkillsUSA is an organization preparing students for the workforce in America. While Lanman attended high school, he was a SkillsUSA student and attended the national conference giving him a step ahead of the other coaches in the state.

“When I started teaching in 2002 one of the first things I started was a SkillsUSA chapter,” Lanman said. “SkillsUSA gives them an edge over other job applicants by letting them have practical hands-on application of the skills in their technical area through competitions and the knowledge of leadership training.”

Ten students of the team will advance to state March 26-28 in Corpus Christi at the SkillsUSA Texas Leadership and Skills Conference.

“Our team won at competition because of a lot of dedication and practice,” senior Weldon Hembree said. “We had help from our seasoned coach of course, Mr. Lanman, and our desire to succeed pushed us ahead of the other competitors. My team will practice on the skills and techniques to do well at building search competition for state.”