By Timothy Leoncio

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The countless hours of dedication put in by current and former MHS students were proudly exhibited at the National Leadership and Skills Conference SkillsUSA at the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, Mo. The competition was held from June 21 to 27, with several standout performances that procured two gold medals and one seventh place award.

“The entire trip to Missouri was an amazing learning experience and very eye-opening,” said Senior Mick Marchan, who competed in the Internetworking category, placing seventh in the nation, “It’s helped me flesh out my goals and determine what exactly I want to do when my academic career is over.”

The SkillsUSA program offered a wide selection of categories to participate in, from Advertising Design, to Plumbing, to Firefighting, all of which had to fall into last year’s theme of  “Educated and Skilled to Lead America.”

After going through a preliminary round of competition at the school level and a secondary state level competition, Juniors Vanessa Roybal and Joy Sanchez qualified for the national level Promotional Bulletin Board, while alumna Leyna Tamaye competed in the Prepared Speech category. “Since there was more than three groups that wanted to enter the competition (but) one school can only enter three at states, my partner and I had to come up with a preliminary design to present to our section advisers so they could decide who’s going to compete,” related Sanchez, “Next thing we know we got chosen, then went to states and won states and then nationals.”

As the chance to compete was highly selective, each group had to perform extensive preliminary work for their section. “I reread all of the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) curriculum that was covered over my past two years of high school, CCNA 1 through 4, and completed some of the more difficult packet tracer simulations,” said Marchan, “For the most part, I studied on my own, but Mr. Takemoto, Mr. Hanagami and Mrs. Blue, state director of SkillsUSA, helped me figure out what I needed to focus on and provided me the materials to study.”

Perfecting the construction of the national level projects was an essential factor in the preparations as well. Sanchez stated, “We spent time during and after school to get the board completed before states. A few times we stayed until we could no longer see the sun.” All the while, veteran adviser Graphic Arts teacher Todd Yoshizawa used his 18 years of SkillsUSA experience to personally guide Sanchez and Roybal by giving recommendations and pointers concerning the design of their board. “(I) advised them for competition, states and nationals. (I) supervised construction of (the) project and critiqued presentations,” he said.

While the prep-work was challenging, the conference itself was no walk in the park. “The competition was brutal,” said Marchan, “The final section was the Router and Switching Project. This section was two hours long and we had to set up an entire network from scratch after being given its structure.” Sanchez added, “Nationals was fun but it was overwhelming.”

Despite the competition’s difficulty, the MHS student participants all walked away as victors. Yoshizawa said, “Very proud of them. (Roybal and Sanchez) were only sophomores and placed best in the nation. That is a very amazing accomplishment considering the total membership of SkillsUSA nationally.” Marchan also expressed his pleasure in experiencing the SkillsUSA program alongside his peers. “Everyone was extremely helpful and kind. Though meeting the other competitors was the best part of the competition, the best part of the entire trip was seeing everyone from Hawaii so dedicated to doing their best,” he recounted, “It was especially heartwarming to see when it all paid off for (Tamaye), (Roybal) and (Sanchez), who all earned a gold medal in their competitions.”

The SkillsUSA competition provided its participants with not only medals and accolades, but also growth and firsthand experience. “This trip is probably the most valuable experience in my academic career and I recommend that anyone who has the opportunity to compete in SkillsUSA try their best to make it to nationals,” said Marchan. Upholding the SkillsUSA ideals, Yoshizawa asserted, “It is a means of which students are given an opportunity to perform their best in technical and leadership areas. It’s an experience they will always remember.”

While Sanchez seeks to try her hand at something new and Marchan readies himself for this year’s conference, Yoshizawa continues to teach the next batch of upcoming competition hopefuls, instilling in them the values that will mold them into the leaders of tomorrow.