OTC students win gold at SkillsUSA national championships

Five students from Ozarks Technical Community College earned gold medals at the SkillsUSA Championships, held June 24-28 in Louisville, Kentucky. The championships took place as part of the SkillsUSA 55^th annual National Leadership and Skills Conference.

At the event, more than 6,400 career and technical education students competed in 103 different trade, technical and leadership fields. Students worked against the clock and each other to prove their expertise in occupations such as computer-aided drafting, precision machining and culinary arts.

OTC’s Computer Information Science Department took home three of the college’s five gold medals. OTC student Dylan Buehler won first place in Computer Programming, while Carissa Hurt and Ryan Mackey won gold in Web Design. The college’s Electronic Media Production Department won two gold medals; Chase Elliott and Robert “Bo” Shore took first place in Digital Cinema Production.

In total, 18 OTC students competed in the SkillsUSA Championships this year. They advanced to the national competition by winning the Missouri SkillsUSA competition held in April. Of the 18 students who competed at the national level, 14 placed in the top 10 of their divisions.

ABOUT SKILLSUSA

SkillsUSA is a national membership association serving high school, college and middle school students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations. More than 360,000 students and advisors join SkillsUSA each year, organized into more than 19,000 local chapters and 52 state and territorial associations.