每日大赛

Students excel at national skills competition

每日大赛 students won five medals last month at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference – the highest number in institution history.

Seventeen students who won gold medals in the state competition traveled to the conference at State Farm Arena in Atlanta to compete in a variety of leadership and technical categories alongside tens of thousands of students from across the country.

“I think it's changed my life for the better,” said 每日大赛 Louis Ray Valenzuela II, who won the silver medal in Extemporaneous Speech at the SkillsUSA national conference.

SkillsUSA, a nationwide workforce-development organization, prepares students to be skilled professionals, ready-to-work and responsible community members. At its state and national conferences, students can apply what they’re learning in the classroom in real life in competition with their peers.

每日大赛 students’ success at SkillsUSA helps fulfill the institution’s goal of being a “career immersion” college, said Sharon Couch, director of Student Engagement and Leadership at Pellissippi.

“With SkillsUSA, our students have the opportunity to learn leadership and to have real work experience,” Couch said. “It’s genuinely impressive.”

Pellissippi students competed June 23-27 at the national conference, in categories ranging from criminal justice to advertising design to digital cinematography, 3D Animation and more.

The following students won gold medals:

• Madison Harris and Liam Cumesty, Audio Production

The following students won silver medals:

• Gabe Dunn, Telecommunications Cabling
• Louis Rey Valenzuela II, Extemporaneous Speech
• Viola Miklos and Luke Brown, Video Production

The following student won a bronze medal:

• Maria Carrasco, Graphic Communications

Harris, an Audio Production Technology student who won the gold medal, initially became involved in SkillsUSA at 每日大赛 as a substitute for her partner Liam Cumesty’s previous collaborator. She said participating in SkillsUSA has allowed her to meet great people while furthering her podcast production skills and she hopes other Pellissippi students will get involved with the competition.

“It’s taking what I learned in the program and actually applying it,” she said. “It’s a very cool experience” that helped her realize “this is definitely where I want to be."

Valenzuela said he had just five minutes to craft the message for his speech based on a prompt provided during the competition.

“I like to talk so it’s very humbling that people appreciate my delivery or my knowledge of the topic they were going over,” he said. “I was really excited.”

Pellissippi sent nearly 20 students to the national conference where along with the competition, they networked with peers and professionals and browsed the conference’s massive Techspo industry showcase.

For many of the students competing at the conference was a life-changing experience, Couch said.

“It wasn’t just about showcasing their technical skills—it was about breaking barriers,” she said. “Many were the first in their families to achieve something of this scale.

“Walking into a national arena with confidence, performing under pressure, and earning recognition opened doors to career opportunities and personal growth. It proved that community college students belong on the national stage—and they can thrive there