Area students from Galesburg Area Vocational Center and Carl Sandburg College brought home seven gold medals from the recent SkillsUSA Illinois Championships in Peoria.
Over three days in late April, students from every part of Illinois came to the Peoria Civic Center for the ultimate workforce development challenges – 150 competitions, judged by expert employers who are looking not only to crown champions but find the young people who will become their next skilled workers.
Students compete in a wide variety of fields that don’t necessarily require a four-year college degree but need skilled training and competency beyond high school: manufacturing, human services and health care, hospitality, cosmetics, trade labor, electronics and much more.
Competitors raced the clock to see who could fix diesel engines, fly drones, sort out complicated computer code, and even put together photos and videos from the competition, all to show the SkillsUSA program has helped them develop the physical and mental skills and approach to be successful in their chosen career path.
Taking gold from GAVC was Carson Stecher in middle school T-Shirt Design.
Representing Carl Sandburg College, Gavin Gerard took first place in Job Interview and in Masonry. Other gold medal winners from Sandburg were: Brian Kipchemis in Medical Math, Ascar Jepchirchir in Medical Terminology, Faith Kiprop in Technical Computer Applications and Ross Welding in Sculpture.
Also for Sandburg, Ryan Leary was second and Deven Bushong third in Welding Sculpture.
For GAVC, Joelle Gayles was second in high school Interactive Application and Video Game Development High School; Devaughn Sanchez was second in high school Interactive Application and Video Game Development; Kenny Mensah was third in high school Computer Programming; Mulata was third in high school Job Interview; and David Glomchit was third in middle school T-Shirt Design.
The winners in each competition now advance to compete in the national SkillsUSA Championships this June in Atlanta, Georgia. More information is available at: https://www.skillsusaillinois.org/the-championships.
The state Championships come at the end of the school year, but also as SkillsUSA advocates to give more students across Illinois the opportunity of an accelerated roadmap for the career of their choosing. The organization held its first Lobby Day at the Illinois Capitol earlier this spring, bringing several dozen students to meet with legislators and advocate for expanded career and technical education (CTE) funding and options.
Gov. JB Pritzker has proposed adding $10 million to CTE funding in next year’s state budget. SkillsUSA will be advocating for that increase and other flexibility for programs like theirs as the legislative session wraps in May. State Sen. Dave Koehler and state Rep. Travis Weaver, both of the Peoria area, attended the competitions.
