At regionals, GCHS has 22 first and second place winners. Senior Boston Eubanks placed in second place in automotive service technology. Sophomores Camilla Cristobal, Laura Cunningham, juniors Madisyn Smiley, Lily Knowles, Gage McLead, Jarod Rascon, and senior Carlie Bennett all placed second place in the open and closing team. Sophomore Aaron Farr placed first in prepared speech. Freshman Lily Smathers placed second in prepared speech. Senior Yazmin Humphrey placed first in extemporaneous speaking. Junior Sofia Cabrero placed second in extemporaneous speaking. Senior Alvin Chen placed second in related technical math. Junior Sawyer Eubanks placed second in carpentry. Juniors Braxton Martin, Landon Williams, seniors Carl Russel and Dimitrios Chelmis all placed first in team works. Senior David Mcdonald placed first in welding. Senior Donovan Dixon, junior Braydon Howell, and Henry Davis all got first place in welding fabrication.
SkillsUSA Region competition at Jones Junior College provides students with unique opportunities to demonstrate their capability in various technical and vocational fields. The competition was held on February 8 and the state competition will be taking place April 2-4.
Going into the competition many students felt very nervous to compete.
“It was a good experience showing up and being there,” senior Bostons Eubanks said. “Being there and coming into it, I was nervous because I did not know how to prepare.”
SkillsUSA demonstrates mastery of established skills and techniques. This organization wants to challenge students into critical on-the-spot thinking, which means in some categories there is no way that you can prepare for the competition.
One example of this is extemporaneous speech. Senior Yazmin Humphrey was one of the participants in this category. ,
“It was nerve racking because I have never competed in extemporaneous speech, ” Humphrey said. “There was no way for me to prepare because they gave me the topic on the spot.”
However, for students who are not comfortable with not being able to prepare, the organization also provides different categories. One example of this is the prepared speech category. Freshman Lily Smathers was one of the competitors in this category.
“To prepare I went to various classes and gave them my speech.” Smathers said.
