Southeastern Reg. Wins 13 Medals at State SkillsUSA

Six Southeastern students will have the opportunity to compete in the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Louisville, Kentucky this June after receiving gold medals at the state conference on April 30. The students in include Stevan Pina, Molly Bolstad, and Adrianna Doughtry, of Brockton; Marissa Wade and Nicole Fitzgibbon of Stoughton and Kiara Jones of Norton. Arlette Dervil of Brockton will also be attending the conference as a state officer.

The honors were part of an excellent performance for all the Southeastern Reg. Voc-Tech students, who received a total 13 medals, including six gold and seven silver. Vocational Director Leslie Weckesser said that 58 students participated and they were all diligent competitors.

“Every one of them came well prepared, and they took this as an extremely important endeavor,” she said.

Stevan Pina, who won in carpentry, will be attending the national conference for the second consecutive year, after winning the same state competition last year. His teacher, Marc Raimondo, said his skills have been exemplary both years, but this year he has gotten quicker.

Stevan said his assignment was similar to last year, so he had many months to practice. During the competition, he had to construct a four-by-four foot miniature house with roofing and stairs within six hours, using a blueprint.

“Following the plan was the hardest part, but I wasn’t really nervous. I just had to keep up my pace, and not work too slowly,” he said.

Adrianna Doughtry, Nichole Fitzgibbon and Kiara Jones, who are all Legal and Protective Services majors, won for the American Spirit competition, which involved documenting community service, patriotism and citizenry through three different projects. Their projects included: obtaining a donated surveillance camera from a local company and donating it to the Arnone Elementary School in Brockton; organizing a mock search and rescue operations with the Bristol County Sheriff’s office, and educating incoming freshmen about nontraditional shops.

Marissa Wade won the Prepared Speech competition, which required her to deliver a 5 – 7 minute speech to three judges that focused on career pathways for success. Marissa said she will not attend the national competition because she is going on a school trip to Italy and Greece, but she plans to compete next year, when she’ll be a senior.

“I like being able to speak about my opinions, and it was great to have six minutes to say what I wanted to say,” she said.

Besides all the participants, Mrs. Weckesser said she appreciated all the hard work of the students’ teachers, SkillsUSA advisors and chaperones, who attended the conference and worked with the students throughout the school year. They include: Robert Morin, Sheila Fox, Jeff Bohning, Chad Wunshel, Wade Gomes, Marc Raimondo, Cheryl Blanchard, Kate Brown, Lauren Gallant, Heather Stoddard and Paul Pietal.

Congratulations to all participants!

Medals:

Gold: Stevan Pina, Brockton, Carpentry

Molly Bolstad, Brockton, Early Education

Marissa Wade, Norton, Prepared Speech

Adrianna Doughtry, Brockton, American Spirit

Nicole Fitzgibbon, Stoughton, American Spirit

Kiara Jones, Norton, American Spirit

Silver: Ashley Amaral, Stoughton, Telecommunications

Timothy Cayer, Brockton, Computer Programming

Jordan Chmielinski, Norton, Occupational Safety and Health

Daniel Ford, Brockton, Career Pathways

Dariany Rodrigues, Brockton, Career Pathways

Tayla Murphy, Brockton, Occupational Safety and Health

Bryan Texiera, Stoughton, Occupational Safety and Health

SkillsUSA is a nonprofit organization that prepares high school and college students for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations. It holds district, state and national competitions each year, which allows students to showcase their technical skills and leadership abilities. Students who receive gold medals in the state competition are able to compete on a national level.

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