Education

SkillsUSA Regional Championships go virtual

Story and photos by Ken Robinson
SkillsUSA European Regional Lead
April 23, 2021
Michael Brenner, the first place winner in the Computer Programming challenge, reviews his code one last time. Michael is a Junior at KHS and placed in three separate contests.

AFCEA Chapter 158 hosted their first virtual SkillsUSA European Regional Championship event. The competition took place over the course of four weeks. Students from six high schools were invited to participate in nine Career and Technical Education (CTE) competitions. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the contests were held virtually and ranged in length from four weeks (engineering) to a one-day showdown (cybersecurity), having most contests take place over a 2 ½ week period.

SkillsUSA is the largest nonprofit national education association of its kind offering quality educational experiences for students in leadership, citizenship, and character development. Serving more than 400,000 members, SkillsUSA is committed to producing the most highly skilled workforce in the world through both education programs and competitions.

AFCEA Chapter 158 supports the SkillsUSA vision by hosting the annual NY State Region VII (European) championships. Chapter 158 recruits local professionals to develop rigorous, industry-relevant CTE challenges designed to help raise the level of workforce readiness and reduce the current skills gap. Additionally, it is AFCEA chapter 158 who provides all the funding and cash prizes for the event.

Karina Lawrence and Elijah Siren, both sophomores at KHS, add additional brackets to their 3D Bioprinter prototype.

Students from throughout central Germany who believe in their skills, believe in their future, and see SkillsUSA as an opportunity to be recognized and rewarded for their talents, eagerly accepted this open invitation. Top winners for each contest received both medals and cash prizes.

Below are the first-place winners from each of the nine CTE contests:

  • Advertising Design – Alyssa Anderson (Wiesbaden High School)
  • Computer Programming – Michael Brenner (Kaiserslautern High School)
  • Engineering Design – Luke Matthews and Max Furqueron (Ramstein High School)
  • Cybersecurity – Michael Brenner and Joshua Collins (Kaiserslautern High School)
  • Photojournalism – Alexis Treska and Siena Norcross (Kaiserslautern High School)
  • Television Video Production – Abigail Marsters (Wiesbaden High School)
  • Video Game Design – Ethan Davis (Ramstein High School)
  • Web Design – Kemka Okoroafor (Kaiserslautern High School)
  • Marketing – Daniel Aldana and Nicolas Schell (Kaiserslautern High School)

For more information about the 2021 SkillsUSA Regional Championships and to see the full list of contest finalists, please visit the AFCEA Chapter 158 website – https://kaiserslautern.afceachapters.org/SkillsUSA.

Aiden Gravett, KHS Senior and 3rd Place Winner (Engineering Contest), attaches a print head to his 3D Bioprinter prototype.
Todd Weingeroff, AFCEA Europe, emcees the 4th Annual Virtual SkillsUSA Regional European Event.
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