Over 100 students from Sanford Regional Technical Center traveled to Bangor to compete at the SkillsUSA State Leadership and Skills Conference and they came home with plenty of hardware to show for it.
Over the course of two days, competitions were held across four venues: the Cross Insurance Center, Eastern Maine Community College, United Technologies Center, and Mid-Maine Technical Center. Of the 77 total competitions offered to high school students, SRTC students competed in 51 of them. SRTC students earned medals in 31 of those competitions, with 51 out of 104 students bringing home hardware, including 18 gold medals, 14 silver, and 19 bronze.
For SRTC Director Matt Petermann, the results spoke for themselves. "This was an amazing opportunity for our students and they seized the day. The students were great and performed extremely well. This makes me extremely proud of our students, staff, and school. We have outstanding students and they showed up when it counted."
SRTC students arrived at the conference already making their mark. Digital Design student Harley Robinson from Massabesic had won the SkillsUSA branding competition months prior, and her pin design was worn by SRTC students and advisors throughout the conference as a result.
Sanford seniors Braedan Landry and Levi Mann brought home gold in Digital Cinema Production, and Landry captured the feeling of the moment perfectly: "The competition this year was very intense. We didn't really know what to expect. When they called our names and I heard we had gotten gold, Levi and I could barely walk!"
The gold medals were spread impressively across programs. In Engineering and Architectural Design, Matthew Melvin of Sanford took gold in Technical Drafting, and Alessandra Castro, also of Sanford, claimed gold in Related Technical Math.
The Automotive Collision Repair program had John Madigan of Massabesic winning Collision Repair Technology, Asa Lane of Marshwood taking gold in Collision Repair Tool Identification, and Conner Peabbles of York earning gold in Collision Damage Appraisal.
In Digital Design, Mair Clarke of York took gold in Advertising Design, while Kacia Davidson of Noble earned gold in the Employability Knowledge Test. Amelia Rice of Maine Connections Academy and Reese Bentley of Noble earned gold in Audio Production.
Adam O'Brien, a homeschool student, won gold in Firefighting; Charles Hamlyn of Wells took gold in Information Technology Services; Connor Wilcox, a homeschool student affiliated with Massabesic, claimed gold in Electrical Construction Wiring; and the Academy of Business team of Maxwell Lapointe and Amalia Fajardo of Sanford, Grace Kenney of Traip Academy, and Ryan Nguyen of Noble won gold in Entrepreneurship. Click here for a complete list of medal winners.
Under the leadership of SkillsUSA advisor Tim Fecteau and the SRTC officer team, the chapter also earned a Bronze Chapter of Excellence designation, a recognition that reflects the organizational work and leadership development that happens behind the scenes of every competition.