Nine students from four different Eastland-Fairfield high school programs competed at the 2023 SkillsUSA national conference in late June.
Nine students from four different high school programs represented Eastland-Fairfield Career & Technical Schools at the 2023 SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference, held June 24-28 in Atlanta. Four students placed inside the top-5 in their respective events, nationally.
State champion, Liam Otten ‘23 (New Albany) headlined the list of top EFCTS finishers after capturing third place overall in the Internetworking competition. Otten completed the Cyber Security program, housed at New Albany-Plain Local High School, this past May. Otten is now a two-time participant at the national level. Last year following his junior year, Otten was the national runner-up in the same event.
Including Otten, four Eastland-Fairfield student made return trips to the national conference. Recent graduates Rowan Toole (Reynoldsburg), Gabby Backer (Pickerington North), and Lillian (Leon) Wright (Teays Valley) experienced their second trip to SkillsUSA Nationals, as well. Toole, who completed the Welding progam, and Backer, a graphic design program completer, both took home fourth-place finishes in their respective categories. Toole did so in the Sheet Metal event, which she competed in last year. Backer took fourth in the T-Shirt Design event. Last year, Backer finished fifth in the Pin Design event.
Wright participated as part of the Promotional Bulletin Board team, which finished 11th overall. Joining Wright on that team were recent graduates from the Graphic Design program, Niko Huntwork (Liberty Union) and TJ Norris (New Albany).
In her first national appearance, Jackie Preece (Teays Valley) took home third place honors in the Photography category, rounding out the list of Eastland-Fairfield top-5 finishers.
Sean Garrettson ‘23 (Fairfield Union) took 13th place in the Automotive MLR competition. Representing the lone junior of the traveling group, rising senior Zane Tanner (New Albany) participated in the Customer Service category, but did not advance to the final round of the event.
About SkillsUSA
SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. We help each student excel. A nonprofit national education association, SkillsUSA serves middle-school, high-school and college/postsecondary students preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations. SkillsUSA empowers its members to become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens. They improve the quality of our nation’s future skilled workforce through the development of SkillsUSA Framework skills that include personal, workplace and technical skills grounded in academics. SkillsUSA serves more than 333,527 students and instructors annually. This includes 19,019 instructors who join as professional members. Including alumni, SkillsUSA membership totals over 394,000. SkillsUSA has served nearly 14 million annual members cumulatively since 1965 and is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor as a successful model of employer-driven workforce development.