In their third year with a SkillsUSA chapter, Junction City High School students came home with several wins from the statewide competition held at Knife River Training Center in Albany on April 11-12.
Similar to Future Farmers of America (FFA), SkillsUSA offers an opportunity for students in middle school through college to build skills in the CTE (career & technical education) field that will serve their future and help provide a skilled workforce to the American labor market. According to Oregon’s SkillsUSA Board of Champions Chair Dale Dvorak, about 700 students from across the state compete every year in 150 competitions of varied fields.
“It’s also kind of this family you end up forming with people of similar interests to you; and even if the interests are not similar, it’s just a love and passion for CTE,” said Kimber Bowser, a JCHS senior and third-time competitor.
While SkillsUSA – formerly known as Vocational Industrial Clubs of America – has been serving students and industries since 1965, JCHS is in its infancy with the program. However, the skills their students are learning are top-level.
Bowser said she was one of only two members in the first year JCHS had a SkillsUSA chapter when Advisor Becci Buenau encouraged her to join.
“It has quickly become a passion for me, and it has driven me to do greater things with my life than what I intended when I was younger,” Bowser said. “It’s something that has really upped my drive for life, and my motivation and my passion for just being who I am.”
Buenau reported Bowser competed in web design while John Boone competed in computer programming in the state competition that first year. Bowser won the gold medal and a shot at nationals.
In the school’s second year, Linda Jackson and Mike King signed up as advisors for graphic design, photography, welding and wood manufacturing, drawing in
more than a dozen students to the chapter. In the state competition that year, four students went on to nationals after winning in the web design, photography, and advertising design competitions. This year Leslie Lucir also became an advisor for culinary, and nearly 30 students are members of the JCHS SkillsUSA chapter.
“Junction City High School is proud to offer a variety of CTE programs to our students, and our students are so talented,” Buenau said. “It’s been great to have an opportunity for our students to demonstrate what they’ve learned through SkillsUSA.”
This year the Junction City chapter competed in the following events: advertising design, T-shirt design, photography, first-aid/CPR, computer programming, web design and development, video production, cabinetmaking, baking and pastry arts, pin design, welding, and additive manufacturing (postponed).
After working with computers the first two years, Boone changed course to compete in the first-aid/CPR competition this year. He said he recently worked as a lifeguard and found the experience very fulfilling. Now he wants to be a paramedic after he graduates.
“This field is just really interesting to me,” Boone said.
Buenau said the school medaled in eight of the 11 events they competed in this year, with 12 of 20 students placing in the top five.
The students took home a number of medals: Kimber Bowser, gold for advertising design; Wesley Kegel, gold for cabinet making (Dylan Lillie took fourth place and Cruz Jordan took fifth); Preston Esch, silver for computer programming; John Boone, gold for first-aid/CPR; Cole Peterson, bronze for photography (Davison Engstrom took fourth); Cole Peterson and Mirella Jimenez-Martinez, gold for video production; Jayden Reid and London O’Connor, gold for web design; Kimber Bowser, gold for T-shirt design.
“We’re so proud of these students,” Buenau said.
“I couldn’t recommend SkillsUSA enough to someone who maybe doesn’t want to do anything, or maybe someone who doesn’t know what they want to do,” Bowser said. “It is amazing. It is a safe place to try out new things because there’s no penalty to losing, but the pros and the benefits of winning is really life-changing.”