Cherokee Students Win Medals at Skills USA Competition

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CANTON, GA -- Cherokee High School Skills USA/Career Tech students brought quite a few medals from the Georgia State Skills USA conference competitions.

Students competed in a variety of skilled trades and leadership contests at the Georgia State Skills USA conference, which was held in March at the Georgia International Convention Center.

Cherokee students competed in multiple events including Welding Sculpture, Automotive Service Technology, CPR/First Aid, Medical Math, Automotive Brakes and Nurse Assisting.

Cherokee HS medalists include: gold, Gabrielle Tercero for Nurse Assisting; silver, Payton Hodges for Medical Math; and bronze, Edith Loarca for Job Skills Demonstration.

Senior David Crothers also won a $5,000 scholarship to the University of Northwestern Ohio, which he will attend in the fall, for his performance in the Automotive contest. Blair Rodriguez, Adrianna Allen and Ashley Green prepared the silver medal-winning “Chapter of Excellence” entry.

First-place winners will go on to the national competition in Louisville, Kentucky, this summer, an event that includes major corporate sponsors such as Lowe’s and Caterpillar, as well as appearances from TV star Mike Rowe (“Dirty Jobs” and “Somebody’s Gotta Do It”). This is the third year Cherokee High School students will be competing at Nationals.

Georgia is traditionally one of the most competitive states in the nation for Skills USA, with the second-highest medal count at Nationals in 2015. Skills USA is a national nonprofit organization serving teachers and high school and college students preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations, including Automotive, Welding, Construction and Health occupations.

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Photo 1: Cherokee HS students who competed at the Georgia Skills USA conference include, from left to right, front row: Ashley Campbell, Gabby Tercero, Edith Loarca; back row: Payton Hodges, David Crothers, Gunnar Grove and Cherokee HS AutoTech Instructor and Skills USA Georgia board member Mike Hagan.
Photo 2: Gabrielle Tercero won a Gold medal in Nurse Assisting.
Photo credits: Cherokee County School District