PHS students qualified for Nationals SkillsUSA competition

Head to Atlanta June 19-23

Posted 6/6/23

Three Powell High School students out of four who qualified for the National SkillsUSA Competition will be competing against student representatives from each state and surrounding territory.

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PHS students qualified for Nationals SkillsUSA competition

Head to Atlanta June 19-23

Posted

Three Powell High School students out of four who qualified for the National SkillsUSA Competition will be competing against student representatives from each state and surrounding territory.

During the Wyoming SkillsUSA Competition in April, students Elle Wilson, Sophie Czirr, Liz Peterson and Kalin Hicswa took the national positions in their respective categories. Hicswa, who graduated in May, attended nationals last year after winning state in the job interview event. Hicswa will not be attending nationals this year but first timers Wilson, Czirr and Peterson will. 

Wilson will be competing in Early Childhood Education, Czirr will be competing in Job Skill Demonstration A (she demonstrated how to apply CPR to an adult at state), and Peterson will compete in restaurant service.

“It was exciting [to qualify], unexpected definitely and I was just kind of showing up for the experience,” Czirr said. “I’ve heard that it was really fun to meet new people, gain leadership, things like that but when I heard my name was called I was super excited. It’s been great having Mrs. [Denise] Laursen with us ever since and I’m really excited for nationals.”

Wilson said her event is similar to Czirr’s but while Czirr could choose any job to demonstrate, Wilson had to carry out specific tasks related to early childhood education.

“I was given three hours to create a lesson plan that was five to seven minutes long, and then present that to judges as if they were my preschool students,” Wilson said. “I also did an interview with [a preschool in Casper] as if they were going to be hiring me, and then I also got to pick out and read a book to one of their 2-year-old classes.”

SkillsUSA adviser Kandi Bennett said part of the program is to help students take advantage of the business and industry in a community. She praised Powell for helping the SkillsUSA kids learn about different career fields. 

Laursen said that the three girls will have to practice their skills and prepare to enter a highly competitive environment where some schools in eastern states have large SkillsUSA programs. 

“Most of the time, the kids we’ve taken to Nationals end up right in the middle, which to me is fantastic. You take kids from the state of Wyoming, and you compete against  bigger places, and there’s like … I want to say 114 different contests at Nationals,” SkillsUSA adviser Denise Laursen said. “So there’s going to be about 15,000 contestants, and that is secondary and post secondary.”

The nationals competition will be in Atlanta on June 19-23.

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