(ROSENBERG, Texas) – Twenty-eight students from Texas State Technical College’s Fort Bend County campus headed off Tuesday, April 1, to compete at the SkillsUSA Texas Leadership and Skills Conference in Corpus Christi. The competition is being held on both the high school and college levels, with students from other TSTC campuses joining the 28 to compete for gold medals.
This is the largest group from the Fort Bend County campus to attend in several years. While this is in part due to a stronger push to attend from instructors, it largely came from the students’ desires.
Adiel Alvarez, a student in the HVAC program, expressed nervousness and excitement about the upcoming meet.
“I’m competing in the Job Skill competition,” Alvarez said. “I’ll be showing how to maintain and troubleshoot a boat motor. I’ve been practicing and reading up on it in preparation.”
He is not the only one. Each of the students has spent the past few weeks preparing the skills and knowledge they will need to succeed on the state level. For most of them, this will be their first time too.
That is not the case for Gilbert Delgado, however. A student in the Robotics and Industrial Controls Technology program, he will be taking on the Robotics — Urban Search and Rescue competition for the second time.
“The competition involves designing and controlling a robot to safely retrieve something from some rubble and dangerous locations,” Delgado said.
Jamie Dalgetty, the SkillsUSA coordinator at the campus and an instructor in the Welding Technology program, is excited for the opportunities the event will bring his students.
“It (SkillsUSA) is a good networking experience, especially if they win and go to nationals,” Dalgetty said. “Helps them get their name out there and in the eyes of industry leaders.”
For more information on SkillsUSA Texas, go to skillsusatx.org.
For more information about TSTC, go to tstc.edu.
