David Tefft, SkillsUSA advisor at Westfield Technical Academy, presents a certificate to Dominique Rogers for participating in the regional competition. All of the students received certificates, and thirteen medalled at the regional contest. (Photo by Amy Porter)
WESTFIELD – On Tuesday, 50 sophomores, juniors and seniors from the Westfield Technical Academy participated in the SkillsUSA regional competition at the McCann Technical High School in North Adams. Thirteen medaled in their trades of choice, and students from carpentry swept their category, winning gold, silver and bronze medals.
Eight technical high schools and an estimated 600 students participated in the District 6 regional competition, according to David Tefft, SkillsUSA advisor at the Technical Academy. The district competition is comprised of a written test, with 50 questions from the trade area, and 25 questions on business and employment. Students are also judged on professional appearance. Gold and silver medalists go on to compete in the state competition on April 20-30 in Marlborough, Mass, where students will also have hands-on competition in their trades.
Gold medal winners on Tuesday were Samantha Crevier for carpentry, Devon Doiron for collision repair technology and Sean Crawford, for electrical construction wiring.
Silver medalists were Dimitri Kostenko for carpentry, Amber St. Denis for commercial baking, Christian Verdon for industrial motor control and Duffy Muller and Ben McCann for team competition web design.
Bronze medalists were Vitaliy Nazarets for carpentry, Nicholas Avery for industrial motor control, Oleksander Stuzhuk for computer programming, Tim Hallenbeck for restaurant service and Isaac Santos for automotive refinishing technology.
All the students that participated received certificates. Dominique Rogers, a sophomore in graphic arts who participated for the first time this year, said now that she knows what it’s all about, she’s going to try again next year. Rogers also belongs to the SkillsUSA after-school program run by Tefft.
“That’s one of the reasons why we include some of the sophomores, to give them a chance to build,” Tefft said. He said winners also get bragging rights.
“The kids take it pretty seriously,” he said. “The kids who know what it is about dig deeper in their trades. It’s actually a big picker-upper.”
At the hands-on competition in Marlborough, carpentry students will build a mock-up shed and have to bring their tools. Electrical wiring students will do residential wiring from schematics, and collision repair technical will have damaged car fenders to repair with welding and metal work. It will cost about $2,800 to send all eight students to the state competition, according to Tefft.
“The school will pay some of the cost,” he said. The SkillsUSA students will have to fundraise for the rest, and quickly. He said the public may support the students by sending a donation to the school marked for the SkillsUSA state competition, or by contacting David Tefft at [email protected].
SkillsUSA is an international partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. It provides educational programs, events and competitions that support career and technical education (CTE) in the nation’s classrooms.
