HERSHEY – Skills USA is a competition where career and technical education students come together from the state of Pennsylvania to compete in shop-related skills.
Students who competed at the state level had to first win at the district level. This year’s state competition was held in Hershey from April 13-15.
Jeff Tech had a strong representation at the state competition with Macey Hollenbaugh competing in Commercial Baking from the Culinary CTE program.
From the Cosmetology CTE program at Jeff Tech, Justine Cherry competed in Cosmetology and Kaitlyn Reiter, with her model Meleana Swanson, competed in Esthetics.
Students who also competed were Mikala Miller, Michaela Herndon, and Zayne Knight in Crime Scene Investigation along with Justin Manns in Criminal Justice, all from the Protective Services CTE program.
Danny Albert from Precision Machining competed in Precision Machining. Brad Peters of Computer Technology competed in Technical Computer Applications and Avery Nelson of Drafting, Design & Engineering competed in Technical Drafting.
Finally, Jeff Tech had Skylar Young and Lexi Douglas of the Digital Media Arts program competed in TV/Video Production.
Justin Manns received a first place medal, which qualifies him to go on to the national competition being held June 20-25, in Louisville, Ky.
Manns, who is presently only in his second year in the Protective Services CTE program, is the third Protective Services student to go to nationals in the past four years.
Larry Kirkwood of the Protective Services CTE program went to nationals in 2012 for First Aid/CPR, Justin Gooden of the Protective Services CTE program went to nationals in 2013 for Criminal Justice and could have gone again in 2014 but was unable to do so due to military obligations.
The following students from Jeff Tech earned medals at the state level—
- First place, Justin Manns, Criminal Justice, Protective Services
- Second place, Avery Nelson, Technical Drafting, Drafting, Design & Engineering
- Second place, Justine Cherry, Cosmetology, Cosmetology—post secondary
- Third place, Kaitlyn Reiter and Meleana Swanson, Esthetics, Cosmetology
- Third place, Danny Albert, Precision Machining, Precision Machining
- Third place, Brad Peters, Technical Computer Application, Computer Technology