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Students' Abilities Put To The Test At Vo-Tech Skills USA
By Keith Hagarty
 | | --Photo By Keith Hagarty Some of the Ocean County Vocational Technical School's best student chefs show off some delicious creations they made as part of the National Skills USA regional competition. |
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From automotive and motorcycle service, cosmetology, electrical wiring, photography and the culinary arts, to just name a few, over 250 students from across the state gathered at the Ocean County Vocational Technical School's (OCVTS) on Chambers Bridge Road, Brick, last weekend to test their abilities at the National Skills USA regional competition.
As a partnership of students, teachers and industry professionals, Skills USA looks to bring all aspects of vocational studies together to promote the development of a skilled workforce in America. With over 30 categories of competitive events, the regional winners from last week's competition will move on to a statewide competition in May.
As they awaited judging on their freshly baked creations, budding chefs Will Meeker, 18, and Richard Childers, 18, of the Brick OCVTS facility, reflected on their efforts as they anxiously awaited the results.
"All of us contestants are just eager to find out whether we placed or not," Meeker said as he and Childers submitted their cherry pies, braided breads, cookies and dinner rolls.
As two of approximately 25 participants in the baker's category, the students knew they had their work cut out for them.
"It's a challenge," said Meeker. "There's a lot of competition here today … it seems like everyone's really pulling out all the stops this year."
Just missing out on a top place finish last year proved to be a motivating force for Meeker this time around.
"It just made me more eager to push myself this year," he said, pointing to his childhood time spent with his grandmother baking cookies as the possible catalyst driving his interest in the culinary arts. "It just came natural, so I just kept going with it."
Getting the chance to meet different students from across the state was one of the highlights of the competition for Meeker and Childers.
"It's nice," said Meeker. "It's cool to see that there's even more people that have the same passion about baking as we do."
Childers agreed, but admitted that when you're arm deep in a mix of ingredients, socializing isn't always the easiest thing to do.
"It's just kind of been too busy," said Childers. "But you have to gauge your strongest points, and know what's going to take you the longest time to do."
From the early morning hours to the afternoon, the bakers worked nonstop, but for Childers, he wouldn't have it any other way.
"This has become almost like an everyday thing for me," said Childers. "This is my element."
The students offered some advice for anyone who's shown interest in becoming a baker, but don't know if they have what it takes.
"Just try it, and go with it. If you mess up, there's always another chance," said Childers.
Meeker agreed, saying it's all about having confidence in yourself, and dealing with adversity.
"If you find a road block, you just try to overcome that. It makes you feel a lot better about yourself," he said. "Just take your time, and the world's your only limit. There's nothing you can't do. If you just push through it, and push hard enough, you can get wherever you want to go."
Flexing Hands-On Skills
Taking a break after their exhaustive competition in automotive service technology, first year OCVTS students Sean McLaughlin, 17, Mark Pagnozzi, 18, and James Allen, 18, spent time with their instructor to review their progress.
"I think they did really good for a first year," said Danny McCormack, OCVTS automotive service instructor for the Brick facility. McCormack was impressed with how well his students did, especially since the firstyear students hadn't even trained yet in a few of the testing categories.
"For the amount of stuff they've been doing in the competition, they haven't even learned yet," said McCormack. "We went through and did just a basic crash course on it just to get them ready for the competition."
Some of the skills automotive students were tested on included the ability to identify parts of a transmission, diagnose a problematic alternator, cylinder head, identify emissions or rebuild an engine from scratch.
"We basically hit on all aspects of the cars, and they also had a written test about the whole automobile on its own," said Mc- Cormack, who was proud of how much time and dedication his students put into the competition.
"Every day, they were on their projects training for this," he said, "and they did a lot of study after school too," said Mc- Cormack.
While the students from the Brick facility trained together, when it came to the competition itself, every participant was judged on an individual basis.
For first-year OCVTS automotive student Allen, some of the criteria proved quite challenging.
"Battery testing and the alternators were the easiest for me," said Allen. "The hardest was the emissions, diagnostics and alignment."
Although he was disappointed that he just missed out on a third place finish, Pagnozzi credited McCormack with helping to alleviate any nerves for the students in preparing them for the competition, saying he's always there to lend a helping hand.
"He's just helpful with everything," said Pagnozzi. "He's very hands-on with anything we need to know. If you need help with anything, he'll come over right away and help out. Very supportive."
Several of the automotive service students said they plan on continuing their training and expanding on their new found skills by attending Brookdale Community College in Lincroft next year, enrolling in the school's award-winning automotive service training and certification program. The college currently has a partnership program with OCVTS for shared credits and opportunities.
"Anything they learn here, they don't have to take again at Brookdale," said Mc- Cormack. "So you save money on credits there."
No matter where the students finished in the final standings of the competition, participation in the event was the overriding key for many of the students, saying it's all about how you react in the face of direct competition.
"You can't pressure yourself," said Pagnozzi, "otherwise you're just going to crack under the pressure."
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