Over 750 high school students from across Western New York took part in the 35th annual Skills USA Region I competition held at Alfred State. Students competed in fifty different competitions held both on the Alfred and Wellsville campuses.
“We have hosted this event with pride for a long time and we will continue to host,” commented Alfred State Professor and Coordinator of the event Mike Ronan. “Skills USA brings a lot to us. The schools bring us students but more importantly their high school students can see a college for maybe the first time.”
On the Alfred campus, some of the many contests included advertising design, cosmetology, exercise science, nurse assisting, and prepared speech while on the Wellsville campus students participated in auto technology, commercial baking, masonry, restaurant services, and welding.
Skills USA State Student Representative Jacob Szumigala likes that the competition is at Alfred State. “It is awesome seeing a school where people come to pursue different blue-collar professions. It is great to interconnect and mingle with people. Skills USA creates and it instills a certain skill set and mindset in young individuals in America and it creates a sense of employability in all of us.”
Contestants from the following schools attended:
Genesee Valley (Batavia), Career and Technical Education Center at Belmont, Charles G May Career-Tech Center (Mt. Morris), Coopers Campus (Painted Post), Edison Tech and Occupational High School (Rochester), Eastern Monroe Career Center (Fairport), Ellicottville CTE Center, GST BOCES Pauline Bush Campus (Elmira), Harkness Career and Technical Center (Cheektowaga), Hewes Educational Center (Ashville), Kenton Career and Technical Education Center (Tonawanda), LoGuidice Center (Fredonia), Niagara (Sanborn), Olean CTE Center, Orleans Career and Technical Education Center (Medina), WD Ormsby Educational Center (East Aurora), Potter Career and Technical Center (West Seneca), Wayne Technical and Career Center (Williamson), WEMOCO Career and Technical Education Center (Spencerport), and GST BOCES Wildwood Campus (Hornell).
Results were announced in an awards ceremony held in the Orvis Gymnasium and top finishers will head to the state competitions in Syracuse next month.
Alfred State students, staff, and faculty participated as contest judges, guides, or provided support.
“I plan to get my associate degree in welding technology at Alfred State and go to the oil field,” commented Szumigala. “Later in life I have thought of pursuing a teaching degree and being a CTE teacher and perhaps a Skills USA advisor.”
