Over 60 Texas State Technical College students will showcase skills with saws, wrenches and coding tools across several events. <\/p>\n
WACO, Texas \u2014 More than 60 students representing Texas State Technical College\u2019s Waco campus will compete at the 2026 SkillsUSA Texas Postsecondary Leadership and Skills Conference, participating in challenges that require physical and mental skillsets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The conference spans four days from April 8 – 11 in Corpus Christi.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe students competing at state have put in a significant amount of additional lab time to ensure they are not only competition-ready, but career-ready, a distinction that makes them highly sought after by employers,\u201d said Abby Ford, a SkillsUSA coordinator at the Waco campus.<\/p>\n
This year, cybersecurity student Jaya Owens will return to the SkillsUSA Texas conference for her second time. Last year, the College Station native placed second in the technical computer applications contest. This year, she will take part in the information technology services contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted to challenge myself,\u201d Owens said. \u201cIt was so much fun for me last year, and I wanted to do it again. I look forward to different aspects of cybersecurity. I feel like I know a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finnean Downey, an engineering graphics and design student, will participate in the additive manufacturing event for the first time.<\/p>\n
Downey is using his former experience as a computer-aided design lead on the robotics team at Bishop Louis Reicher Catholic High School in Waco to anticipate and analyze scenarios he could face in the contest.<\/p>\n
Downey and his classmate, Andrew Waters, know some of what their contest project will be, but are not given all the details.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to seeing all the different solutions people have come up with for the same problem,\u201d Downey said.<\/p>\n
Yoakum, Texas, native Jack Meyer is in his second semester in the Building Construction program and is competing in SkillsUSA for the first time in the carpentry contest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPractices have gone amazing,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cI have learned a lot from (William) Morelock (an instructor in the Building Construction program.) I\u2019ve learned skills here that I would not be able to learn in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meyer said he looks forward to spending time with his classmates and hopes to fish in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other contests that Waco campus students will participate in include automotive refinishing technology, diesel equipment technology, and welding fabrication.<\/p>\n
Students who win gold medals at the state level may participate in the 2026 SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference to be held June 1-5 in Atlanta, Georgia.<\/p>\n
SkillsUSA is a professional organization focused on employability, leadership and technical skills that help college students pursue successful careers and be part of a skilled workforce.<\/p>\n
SkillsUSA has more than 100 specific contests at state and national events for students to compete in, from 3D Visualization and Animation to Welding Sculpture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over 60 Texas State Technical College students will showcase skills with saws, wrenches and coding tools across several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-234036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}