5 USU Eastern Students Place at National Conference

USU Eastern Press Release

Five Utah State University Eastern students placed at the National Leadership Skills Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, recently, which showcased career and technical education students.

The welding fabrication team of Tosh Davis and Ben Warnick, Spanish Fork and Davis Thompson, Emery, won first place. According to welding instructor Austin Welch, USU Eastern has medaled in this competition seven times since the contest’s inauguration in 2008.

The competition was especially challenging this year, as the new committee chair overseeing the competition made substantial changes to the competition’s overall structure. However, the competitors worked hard and were well prepared for the competition, Welch said.

Another welding student, Jordan Wynn from Roosevelt, placed fourth in the welding competition. As soon as the competition was over, Wynn returned to continue training for the U.S. Open Weld Trials. He will compete amongst the other top welders in the country to determine Team USA’s welding competitor at WorldSkills 2019 in Kazan, Russia. 

The final winner was Chloe Wilson from Springville, who scored 93% to finish 10^th overall in job skill demonstration A. Wilson demonstrated her ability to use blueprint-reading skills to construct a designed object to specifications. Additionally, Wilson was elected president of Utah SkillsUSA’s post-secondary division. 

“The students are extraordinary examples of our community, our institution, the state of Utah and the value of vocational education,” Welsh said.

USUE Associate Vice Chancellor Jamie Cano thanked the instructors for preparing their students for the competition while SkillsUSA Health Profession adviser, Lori Rager said, “Chloe is amazing. She competed well at the state and national level and, more importantly, taken on a role of leadership to help engage other students across the state of Utah. She received her associate of science degree from USUE with honors from the National Technical Honor Society and will finish her welding courses in 2019.”

The SkillsUSA Championships involves more than 6,000 career and technical education students, all state contest winners, competing hands-on in 100 different trade, technical and leadership fields. Students work against the clock and each other, proving their expertise in occupations such as electronics, computer-aided drafting, precision machining, medical assisting and culinary arts. 

Contests are run with the help of industry, trade associations and labor organizations and test competencies are set by industry. Leadership contestants will demonstrate skills, including extemporaneous speaking and conducting meetings by parliamentary procedure.