{"id":3106,"date":"2018-06-28T12:36:39","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T12:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=3106"},"modified":"2018-06-28T12:36:39","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T12:36:39","slug":"tstc-students-represent-texas-at-national-skillsusa-conference-in-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=3106","title":{"rendered":"TSTC Students Represent Texas at National SkillsUSA Conference in Kentucky"},"content":{"rendered":"

(WACO) – Students calculated, hammered and stirred their way through the first day of competitions Wednesday at SkillsUSA\u2019s 54th National Leadership and Skills Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.<\/span><\/p>\n

Texas State Technical College students from the Fort Bend County, Harlingen, Marshall, Waco and West Texas campuses participated in events such as Additive Manufacturing, CNC Technician, Internetworking and Medical Math at the Kentucky Exposition Center. The students qualified for the national conference by winning at SkillsUSA Texas\u2019 state conference in April in Waco.<\/span><\/p>\n

Noah McCoy, 21, a 2015 graduate of Saint Joseph Academy in Brownsville, represents TSTC in Harlingen in the Automated Manufacturing Technology team contest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are different expectations,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cWe are a three-man team. Miguel (Zamarripa) knows machining and Carlos (Davila) is strong in drafting. It\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McCoy went to the national contest in 2017 and competed in Technical Drafting.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a little more prepared,\u201d he said. \u201cWe show the other students around and how things go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Alexander Oldham, 30, is a Computer Networking and Systems Administration major at TSTC in Brownwood taking part in Technical Computer Applications. He said the contest\u2019s components complement what he is studying.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou never stop learning,\u201d Oldham said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oldham, like many students attending the conference, has been trading state delegation pins. So far, he has gotten pins from Georgia, Illinois and Iowa, but has not gotten the elusive Hawaii or Puerto Rico pins yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

The buildup to Wednesday began Monday night when state meetings were held to go over conference information and rules.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the opening ceremony was held at historic Freedom Hall and included national awards, a high school parade of states and remarks from NASCAR Team Penske driver and Michigan native Brad Keselowski.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keselowski talked about his development in racing and how several technical careers factored into his line of work. He said the more effort people put toward their goals, the better the results will be.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the USA will continue to get stronger because of you guys,\u201d Keselowski said, vowing his support to SkillsUSA.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Attendees cheered when Keselowski changed on stage out of the navy blue blazer he was wearing into SkillsUSA\u2019s signature red jacket.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone here is a winner,\u201d he said. \u201cThis coat represents winners. I like winners.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The national conference has 102 events with an attendance of 18,000 people, including students, teachers and representatives of 600 national companies, trade associations, labor unions and businesses, according to information from SkillsUSA.<\/span><\/p>\n

Competitions continue Thursday, along with students visiting Kentucky Kingdom, an amusement park on the grounds of the exposition center.<\/span><\/p>\n

The closing ceremony will be Friday night at Freedom Hall, where more than 1,000 gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded to secondary and postsecondary competitors.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen students succeed, America succeeds,\u201d Timothy Lawrence, executive director of SkillsUSA, told attendees at Tuesday night\u2019s opening ceremony,<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on SkillsUSA, go to skillsusa.org.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(WACO) – Students calculated, hammered and stirred their way through the first day of competitions Wednesday at SkillsUSA\u2019s 54th National Leadership and Skills Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Texas State Technical College students from the Fort Bend County, Harlingen, Marshall, Waco and West Texas campuses participated in events such as Additive Manufacturing, CNC Technician, Internetworking and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,6,8,12,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fort-bend","category-harlingen","category-marshall","category-waco","category-westtexas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3108,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106\/revisions\/3108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}