[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s a part of the Columbia Area Career Center (CACC), SkillsUSA is a national organization that both the CACC and other technical schools compete in. SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industries working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce.  Saturday, April 8, the state competition was at State Technical College in Linn, Missouri.  
Among RBHS’s competitors was sophomore Daniel Schroeder who took second in architectural drafting.
“In essence, the competition consists of being presented a floor plan for a house, and being able to recreate that floor plan in a computer whilst also generating various section and exterior views of the house,” Schroeder said.  “They give a time limit for all of this to be completed.”
Advising the RBHS competitors is Brad Mann, the main advisor who teaches Civil/Architecture Computer Aided Design (CAD). Other teachers include Mr. Allee and Mrs. Estabrooks and Mr. Phelps.
As a first time competitor in the event, Schroeder learned the majority of the information needed in short period of time; however, his efforts to work whenever he was free paid off as he placed second in his event.
“I have been going into my CAD class every day during AUT for the past nine weeks to prepare, as I was learning all of this for the first time. My CAD teacher, Mr. Allee, and Mr. Mann would work with me to prepare.”
Sophomore Dharti Patel also competed. Her area was medical terminology.
“I competed in the event Medical Terminology,” Patel said.  “I did not place in the top three, but it was still a great experience and will help me do better next year.  For my event, I had to take a test, which was two hours long. Other requirements included official SkillsUSA dress code and bringing a copy of my resume.”
Another RBHS competitor, junior Siddhant Chaurasia, placed first in career pathway showcase to secure a spot at nationals, which will be in Louisville, Kentucky in late June.
[quote]“I competed in two events.  The first one was Related Technical Math, so it’s basically a 50 question test over two hours.  The other one was Career Pathway Showcase and basically you had different branches like information technology, law enforcement and medicine,” Chaurasia said.  “What we did was information technology and basically what you have to do is within your branch you have to make something or do something that impacts your society around you in a better way.  We basically made an app called medicine manager that allows you to effortlessly manage your medications.  For related technical math, I was hoping for the top three, but I got six and it was out of like the 50 or 60 people that competed. For career pathway showcase, it went way better with got first at state so that means we qualify for nationals.”[/quote] As Chaurasia awaits June for another round of competition, he feels he has already taken away significantly important values from the experience.
“It’s taught me skills such as communication, teamwork and collaboration and also hard skills like programming with the career pathway showcase,” Chaurasia said.  “I know to plan my time and to make sure I’m organized. It also gives you a sense of pride in the sense of community that you know you’re proud to be an American proud to be doing something that impacts others around you.”
Did you participate in Skills USA? Let us know in the comments below.