On the Cover: SkillsUSA Champion Sheila Vasquez of Cranston, R.I.

By Craig E. Moore
A successful teacher is comfortable in front of the classroom. But for this longtime SkillsUSA advisor, it wasn’t always so. [Read]

By Guest Contributor Rod McCurdy
Taking time off from a high-tech career, a former SkillsUSA student tests the theory that a reed ship built in the style of the ancients could actually make it across the Pacific. As his journal entries reveal, he learned a lot about himself, too.
[Read]

By Tom Kercheval
“You can’t just lie back and accept a negative,” says James Calle, for whom just learning to walk was the first of many challenges. Find out how “pizza day” was the start of reaching his full potential. [Read]

By Ann P. Schreiber
Two students make other teen-agers think about the difficulties of being a parent —stopping child abuse before it happens. [Read]