Newport Student to Represent RI in National SkillsUSA Championship

Next week, Newport Area Career and Tech student Chris Kamps will head to Louisville, Kentucky to compete in the 51st annual SkillsUSA National Championship where he will represent Rhode Island in the Technical Computer Applications contest.

Kamps, a junior and first-year Academy of Information Technology (AOIT) student, was recently awarded the gold medal at the SkillsUSA state level and will now move to the national stage where he will contend with the most talented career and tech students from across the nation.

The national competition, best described as a showcase of career and tech talent, attracts over 15,000 guests each year including students, educators and representatives from over 600 industry, business and trade groups. Starting on Monday (June 22), the event hosts over 100 hands-on skill and leadership competitions over the course of 5 days, commencing with an elaborate awards ceremony Friday (June26) night at the Kentucky Exposition Center. Also making the trip will be AOIT instructor Monica Awde Wlodyka and NACTC Director Chris Fisher, who was recently named President of the SkillsUSA Rhode Island Advisory Board.

The Newport AOIT program has earned the gold medal in this competition for seven consecutive years, and has swept the field for the last four. Fiona Heaney, a sophomore computer science major at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) represented Newport twice at nationals, once placing 6th in the nation. Jackson Baker, a 2015 graduate of Rogers and AOIT, also represented Newport at nationals on two occasions, once placing 14th. Jackson will attend WPI in September, where he will also major in computer science.

Previous winners included Cody Mello, who recently graduated from Brown University with a degree in Computer Science and Tiphanie Fuentes, who is entering her senior year at Harvard University with a concentration in Computational Linguistics. This year’s contestant, Chris Kamps, has shown exceptional talent in the areas of information technology, math and science. He was an integral part of this year’s CyberPatriot team at Rogers, which placed 2nd in the state this year.

Housed on the campus of Roger’s High School, the Newport Area Career and Technical Center (NACTC) currently offers six programs, including the Academy of Information Technology (AOIT), Advertising Design & New Media, Automotive Technology, Cosmetology, Culinary Arts and Residential Carpentry with plans to unveil several new programs in the 2015-16 school year. To learn more about the Academy of Information Technology, visit www.newportaoit.org.

Picture: AOIT gold medalist Chris Kamps, also a member of the Rogers JROTC program, practices his technical skills before heading to the SkillsUSA National Championship in Louisville, Kentucky.