Every year, CTE courses can choose their best competitors to attend the National Leadership & Skills conference (NLSC). The main purpose of SkillsUSA is to prepare students for the specialized workforce. Currently, Mr. Stahlke’s Forensic Science students are preparing to get gold at this prestigious competition.
SkillsUSA requires competitors to demonstrate basic crime scene skills, including swabbing biological evidence, lifting fingerprints, packaging evidence and so much more. Seniors, Cailyn Hardman and Kadyn Sparkman are the team leads this year, and intend on blowing away the judges.
“I am looking forward to the Crime Scene Investigation competition itself. I’m excited to put my knowledge and skills to the test, as well as experiencing new things,” Sparkman commented.
Now, it isn’t easy to get gold, but the skills team is making valuable changes in order to achieve their goals, no matter what.
“This year is quite different in the CSI part of our skills chapter here at Shadow Ridge. This year we had people show interest and we had to choose the third member of our team.” Hardman said, “We just went through an interviewing process to help make our decision. We are preparing by going over guidelines, what the competition entails, and what we will need to work on. We will start doing practice and going more in depth to understand Crime Scene Investigation more.”
The CSI skills team will be embarking on a trip in Atlanta this June in order to show off their skills. But, these trips are not only business orientated.
“They [NLSC meetings] are fun! Students get a chance to showcase their skills and through that experience they create life long relationships,” commented Mr. Stahlke, the advisor. “They [students] learn and apply on the job skills geared towards a career in Crime Scene Investigation.”
NLSC is an experience long awaited by everyone involved. With so much time to prepare, eight months can still feel like the blink of an eye. This leads to diligent and dedicated meetings in room 316, and even some after hours studying time.
“We start preparing months in advance, as a group we meet once a week after school but personally I spend more time during the week outside of those meetings preparing as well,” Sparkman said.
SkillsUSA is an organization that requires dedication, hard work and enthusiasm. Luckily for this year’s team, they meet all the requirements and more.
