Skills Competition By Tristin Krecota
November holds several events throughout the month, from Thanksgiving, to the infamous Black Friday, an hour is falling back for Daylights Saving Day and for Lenape, November is the month of Skills Competition for every student in the tech to show off the skills they have put an immense of effort into.
The technical programs of Lenape Tech all have their own challenges for others to compete against to show who is the best amongst their peers. Each shop has a distinct test to see how well the students have really learned over their time here and it allows them to reach new places in their environment. Skills create a positive and more competitive atmosphere. Eli Conaway, a student of Lenape tech says, “Skills always brings out the best in us, even if we are competing against each other.” Those who win first in their designated test don’t just get bragging rights in Lenape, but they proceed from locals to regional where the testing takes place in New Kensington where other schools surrounding Armstrong County compete.
Once that’s done it leads to States, located at Hershey, where it has far more tension because now other schools are now competing against Lenape Tech from all over the state instead of the local area, and this is where groups break or make it. Pushing against far stricter judges, but if they do make it and pass with a boosting score, they make it to Nationals which is in Atlanta, Georgia where it is openly televised for most if not all others to watch on YouTube.
Lenape Tech’s skills test are never the same for each shop because each one is different with both learning material and even how it’s taught. Law Enforcement or LEIT has two tests, the first is Crime Scene investigation where a group of three goes into a mock crime scene randomly created. They make a copy of the room, detail all that’s inside and proceed to bag the evidence properly. It’s timed and based off precision; the second test is a knowledge quiz going over most thing all Law Enforcement and they must perform a handcuffing and search their suspect.
Advertising Technology Department or ADT follows with two tests like LEIT, they are to design a shirt and a pin from a given theme that has been decided for that year. This follows with using Adobe to work on the design through given shapes and the rough draft is shuffled out and is properly measured on the shirt before being printed out to be judged. Biomedical technology has multiple knowledge tests that the students can go through to compete against each other. The Health Knowledge Bowl is often the one most chosen as it encompasses a broad range of everything the class has learned. With that, Skills 2024 had an incredible run of reaching the finals and striking Gold, thus increasing its popularity amongst the school.
Welding follows with a rather expected test that required both precision and timing as the objective is to go through and weld a series of different types of steel and metal with different torches that hold varying strength for each target. Once the student has concluded it will be judged amongst the others. Culinary goes through a two-step process of baking a cake and following that it is to be decorated accordingly to then be judged on for both its aesthetic and taste. Haylee Schaeffer who wasn’t a part of the Competiton last year but does remember the mood saying, “It was pretty calm, but everyone was definitely rushing.”
Good luck to all the competitors in their respective competitions.
