Department: Success Story

nthony Mitchell says he joined SkillsUSA by “mistake.” As an outgoing building trades student at Carl Loftin Career and Technical Center in Columbia, Miss., Mitchell was more interested in having fun than joining a student organization. Darnell Ramshur, Mitchell’s instructor and a SkillsUSA advisor, saw something special in the young man. Ramshur offered to pay Mitchell’s SkillsUSA dues for the first year if Mitchell would attend a SkillsUSA barbecue. “So, I’m like, ‘Fair enough,’” Mitchell says. “If I get a chance…
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EvaMarie Downs was born to cook, and her success as a culinary arts student at Cuesta College in Paso Robles, Calif., is confirmation. While a student, Downs initially joined SkillsUSA to spend time with her friends and fellow culinary arts students as they spent long hours preparing for competitions. “Doing something together like that bonds…
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Dylan Laumbach has her sights set on an advanced degree in mechanical engineering followed by a career where she can stay connected to the hands-on machining work she loves. This 17-year-old senior from Chickasha (Okla.) High School is SkillsUSA Oklahoma’s 2019-20 college/postsecondary parliamentarian and a model student in Canadian Valley Technology Center’s precision machining program.…
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PODCAST: Interview with Glori Beaufort

One thing you can’t say about former SkillsUSA national officer Brice Harader-Pate is that she lets the grass grow under her feet. She’s always looking for new opportunities, consistently choosing to make every moment count. Harader-Pate credits a now 10-year involvement with SkillsUSA for honing her leadership and employability skills while inspiring her to become…
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Dave Curry didn’t start his career with a desire to be an educator. In fact, he wanted to be in the military until an injury ended that dream. He also considered law enforcement, so he began working in probation and parole before moving to social work. All those career paths had something in common: service…
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Crystal Wright, 36, is an example of the SkillsUSA Framework in action, that combination of personal, workplace and technical skills grounded in academics that helps SkillsUSA fulfill its mission to empower its members to become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens. Wright is SkillsUSA Georgia’s college/postsecondary president, a national silver medalist in practical nursing…
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Paravi Das likes to live her life amped up and ramped up. Singing, dancing, and excelling in graphic design and performance, she is the star of her own story. Like most uplifting stories, however, it hasn’t been a constant upward trajectory. There have been bumps in the road, one in particular that seemed to bring…
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SkillsUSA national high-school vice president Melissa Moreno, a senior at San Luis (Ariz.) High School, is hardly the stereotypical “social outcast” who’s the cliched target in the bullied-student scenarios we’re most familiar with. On the contrary, she’s a vibrant extrovert, grounded in confidence and driven by a passion for leadership. And yet, Moreno claims to…
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Second chances mean a lot to Montecito (Calif.) High School advisor Nicholas Jordan. As a construction teacher for a continuation high school,  Jordan knows that, for many of these students, a second chance is just what is needed. “I see myself in my students and value my ability to relate to them,” Jordan says. “I…
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