Goshen Student's Team Takes Trophy in CT SkillsUSA Competition
Anita Budge
Goshen student Anita Budge was one of an all-Freshman team from Oliver Wolcott Technical School that won a second place trophy in the Quiz Bowl at the recent SkillsUSA Connecticut competition. The Quiz Bowl competition tests a team of five to seven competitors on their ability to quickly respond to knowledge questions covering academics, current events and the SkillsUSA professional development curriculum. Teams demonstrate communication skills, teamwork, problem solving and time-management skills by determining and presenting the answer to each question clearly within a five-second time frame.
SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. They help each student excel. Operating as a nonprofit national education association, SkillsUSA serves middle-school, high-school and college/postsecondary students preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations.
SkillsUSA serves more than 331,000 students and instructors annually. This includes 19,019 instructors who join as professional members. Including alumni, SkillsUSA membership totals over 393,000. SkillsUSA has served nearly 14 million annual members cumulatively since 1965 and is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor as a successful model of employer-driven workforce development.
The SkillsUSA mission statement is to empower its members to become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens. Their goal is to improve the quality of our nation’s future skilled workforce through the developing a framework that includes personal, workplace and technical skills grounded in academics. Their vision is to produce the most highly skilled workforce in the world, providing every member the opportunity for career success.
To accomplish this SkillsUSA holds Championship competitions where students compete to showcase their career and technical education. These contests begin locally, continue throughout each state, and culminate at the national level.
The philosophy of each individual championship is to reward students for excellence, to involve industry in directly evaluating student performance, and to keep training relevant to employers’ needs.
Through an investment from business and industry partners of approximately $36 million, the 2022 National event occupied a space of 41 acres which is the equivalent of 31 football fields. There were nearly 5,200 contestants in 108 separate events and close to 2,000 judges and contest organizers from labor and management to make the national event possible.
More recently, on March 31st to be exact, 36 students from Oliver Wolcott Technical High School in Torrington put their best forward representing themselves and O.W.T.S. at the 46th Annual Connecticut State Leadership and Skills Conference held at Wilcox Technical High School in Meriden.
On a day when the rest of the students were off from school these competitors were not only all on time for a 5:45am departure, but appeared to be thoroughly prepared for their competitions against approximately 700 other students from across Connecticut. After the various competitions throughout the day students were served an all you can eat meal then given time to enjoy a dance with a live DJ.
At 6PM all competitors were then bussed to Platt High School in Meriden for an awards ceremony which lasted some 2 plus hours and can be seen on Youtube using the URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khufb67h944
The results of this awards ceremony was one for the record books for Oliver Wolcott in so many ways! Of the 36 O.W.T.S participants, 29 made the stage with 9 students bringing home medals in the top 6 in Connecticut, 4 students bringing home 3rd place trophies, 12 students bringing home 2nd place trophies, and 7 students bringing home 1st place trophies!
And most impressive of all was Oliver Wolcott Technical High School winning 1st place as the Outstanding Chapter of Connecticut bringing home a 6-foot Trophy. In addition O.W.T.S. was also awarded a GOLD National Chapter of Distinction! This is two consecutive years running and is a testament to the caliber and dedication of the students within the O.W.T.S. Chapter of SkillsUSA.
