By Jon Burleson
The Wakefield High School SkillsUSA team had a great showing at the 2023 Nebraska SkillsUSA State Leadership Conference held April 13-15, at the Heartland Events Center & Fonner Park, Career Pathway Institute and Central Community College in Grand Island.
Wakefield took 32 students to the event and participated in 18 of the 80 skills contests, said Wakefield SkillsUSA advisor Will Tietmeyer. They competed in a field of about 2,000, he said.
Seniors Jocelyn Weaver, MaKenna Decker and Brianna Martinez earned the team’s top honors with a gold award in the Career Pathways Showcase – Health Services category. According to the SkillsUSA guidelines, Student teams used their course of study as the basis of a project that was of benefit to their class, school, community or industry. The project must highlight an aspect of their career cluster training. They were judged on their mastery of their training, its application, the project’s benefit to their community as well as their display and presentation techniques.
The trio’s health services project involved restocking and updating the first aid kits in the school and in the school’s vans and buses. The gold award earns the young ladies a spot in the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference held in Atlanta in late June.
Freshman Jaden Sievers earned a silver award in the Job Skill Demo Open category. Sievers had to demonstrate and explain an entry-level skill used in the occupational area for which he is training. Another freshman, Lane Fischer earned a bronze award for Job Interview Open. He had to submit a resume and application prior to the competition for a specific position. Judges provided contestants resume and interview feedback to the students upon completion of the interview.
Seniors Matthew Ladely and Juan Paredes teamed up to earn a bronze award in the Digital Cinema category. This contest consisted of a script or storyboard assignment, an interview with one or more judges and a short video (four-and-one-half to five minutes in length) that was filmed and edited on site. All work had to be done between the contest briefing and designated turn-in-time (eight hours) and filmed within the area specified by the field assignment, Tietmeyer said.
The theme of the Digital Cinema competition was "Change." Participants were free to interpret the theme in any way they chose. But, it must have a scene where a person on film says: “This is how we change.” It was judged equally on creativity, storytelling, technical skill and seven other criteria.
Another bronze award went to junior Domingo Domingo. His T-shirt Design netted the award after he also had to undergo an interview process.
Tietmeyer, who has been the Wakefield SkillsUSA advisor for the past four years, said the group had a large senior class representation this year. He also had an impressive showing at the conference. Tietmeyer was elected to the SkillsUSA Board of Directors at the conference. He will serve a three-year term.
Tietmeyer said he was very proud of his group’s showing. He said the students have been working towards the conference all year. They worked during school hours, as well as after school, including interviews and job shadowing, he said. This all part of Tietmeyer’s teaching philosophy.
“I want our students to be able to rise above the competition in the job marketplace,” he said.
The Wakefield group will be working on fundraising for the gold award winners to attend Nationals, he said. After that, it is preparing for next year’s events, recruiting for membership and developing fundraising ideas for the next school year.
Tietmeyer hopes local businesses will be willing to work with his students, perhaps even sponsoring the program for those interested in entering a specific career field.