Powell High School students will be showing off their skills in the Peach State when they compete at SkillsUSA’s National Leadership and Skills Conference competition in Atlanta.

Incoming senior Kinley Cooley and graduate Keegan Hicswa qualified for the conference during the State Leadership and Skills Conference in April. Cooley will be competing in the job demonstration open event (specifically infant CPR) and Hicswa will be competing in the job interview event.

Also attending the national competition will be Elle Wilson, Sophie Czirr, Meaghan McKeen, Maya Landwehr and Kalia Parker. These students did not qualify at state but are able to attend in the absence of the first place winners.

According to SkillsUSA’s website the conference is one of the world’s largest workforce development events.

Cooley has been focusing on the speech portion of her event, which tripped her up at last year’s state competition. In particular she was not prepared for questions from the judges; this year she has been working to change that.

“I’ve definitely been practicing my speech like, a lot more. I practice it a couple times a day and I always make sure I have someone watch me or listen to me do it, that way I can have some feedback and know what I need to work on which has been super helpful,” Cooley said.

She added that she has been working on incorporating actions into her speech and has also gone deeper into researching infant CPR in order to be prepared for questions from the judges. 

Hicswa has also been preparing by practicing his interview and watching videos on the proper way to answer interview questions.

“Just to make sure I’m in the right frame of mind and have things ready for when I leave,” he said.

Outside of the competition both Hicswa and Cooley are excited to visit Atlanta. Cooley, who is a fan of aquatic life — sharks in particular — is looking forward to the aquarium, while Hicswa is ready to explore the city with the rest of the Powell team. 

“I think it’ll be really fun, and just experiencing a big city like that is something us people in Powell don’t get to do all too often,” Hicswa said.