From June 24-28th, nine LCCTC state gold medalists joined more than 19,000 students, teachers, education leaders, and representatives from 600 national corporations, trade associations, businesses and labor unions for SkillsUSA’s 55th annual National Leadership and Skills Conference, the world’s largest showcase of skilled trades. The highlight of the week was the annual SkillsUSA Championships on June 26-27 with 103 hands-on skill and leadership competitions. Competing in three of these competitions, our students represented their families and friends, Lawrence County CTC, SkillsUSA District 10, and SkillsUSA Pennsylvania, making all of us quite proud, and though they did not medal, they did perform well against the best of the best across the nation.

Brandon Bright, a junior health assistant student competing in Health Occupation Portfolio, can proudly claim to be 6th in the nation and scoring in the top third of his competition. We are quite proud of his accomplishments and look forward to seeing what he has to bring to the table next year as he returns to compete in SkillsUSA.

The Opening and Closing Team — made of seniors Riley Leonard (RT, Wilmington), Trenton Yale (Mas/CT, New Castle), Jaden Locke (COT, Ellwood), Shelby Keister (Cos, Union), and Tabatha Zang (VA, Ellwood) and juniors Gianna Bochert (VA, Mohawk) and Alyssa Wilson (Cos, Wilmington) — proudly return claiming 5th place among 29 other competitors. We wish the senior team members the very best as they continue their education and training after graduation, and we look forward to seeing the leadership of Alyssa and Gianna as they continue their successes in SkillsUSA.

Devin Dilling placed 4th among her 44 competitors in Welding Sculpture, an amazing feat! Her competition consisted of three parts: shop skill could be seen in the actual creation of her sculpture, academic skills were evident in the compilation of a notebook featuring both pictures and journaling which documented her progress and depicted her inspiration for creating the sculpture, and communication skills shined during her presentation and interview. We look forward to hearing of her future success as she strives to continue her career in metalworking.