Students at Shadow Ridge in video production, forensics, photography, and automotive recently competed in the SkillsUSA competition. The students won 10 medals total, 9 silver and 1 bronze. These students have been working hard all year to get to where they are, preparing for SkillsUSA and applying things that they have learned throughout the year to do well in the competition. 

Senior Chloe Cabarles stated, “We prepared weeks in advance for the competition, my team and I mostly met in our forensic science teacher’s room after school. We went over the guidelines, rules, and what to expect from the competition. We pretty much went over all of the material that we learned throughout our entire time of being a forensic science student. We also packed an enormous amount of equipment and materials that we needed specifically for our competition. But I will give all the credit to Mr. Stahlke for really helping us prepare, repeatedly going over the material with us and motivating us to do our best, even when we felt like we did terribly. Honestly, without him, I don’t think we would’ve won.”

The students reviewed and practiced to prepare for the competition. They put in lots of extra work to succeed in the competition, and it paid off. The team made sure they were as prepared as possible before the competition. Teachers also helped their students to prepare for the competition, helping them and supporting them through the entire process. Even in moments of doubt, the teachers’ and students’ commitment to succeeding gave them the motivation and confidence to continue.

Cabarles continued, “Besides winning and getting a medal, I would say having fun with my teammates was the best part. The competition itself was stressful and we were under a lot of pressure, but we still remembered to enjoy ourselves while in the competition and at the end of the day.” 

The SkillsUSA competition helped teams to form bonds along the way. Through all the challenges, the teams work together and have fun with it at the same time. Putting aside the pressure of the competition and having fun made the experience more involved and enjoyable for the students competing.

Junior, Lilly Varay, competed in the television production portion of the competition. Varay stated, “For my team’s competition we essentially did a news broadcast. We were given a set of news stories which we had to sort through to pick the best ones and compile them into a script including camera cues. We had 20 minutes to film a 3 minute broadcast where Tristan Niemeyer and I anchored, Dominic Ginnochio did technical directing and Tanner Hagen did floor directing.

Everyone had to work together to create a winning news broadcast in a short amount of time.