Thousands of students are in the Coastal Bend for a SkillsUSA competition, gaining real-world experience while generating a boost for local hotels and businesses.<\/p>\n
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 Thousands of students are in the Coastal Bend this week, competing in a SkillsUSA event that highlights the next generation of skilled workers.<\/p>\n
The competition gives students the opportunity to showcase their abilities in fields like engineering, health sciences and technology after advancing through regional contests.<\/p>\n
Organizers say the event is about more than competition \u2014 it\u2019s about preparing students for the workforce.<\/p>\n
“This organization is a way they can further advance those skills, showcase them and get real experience on their resume to apply for a job and to get jobs in those skilled trades,” said Grant McCall, a SkillsUSA officer from Lubbock.<\/p>\n
Students say the experience can open doors that might not otherwise be available.<\/p>\n
“Because a lot of kids wouldn’t have an opportunity like this if it weren’t for this organization,” said Hannah Castillo, a national officer for SkillsUSA attending the state conference. “It really does make a difference on the future of not only those kids and those students, but it makes a difference on the future of us all because those skilled trades are really important.”<\/p>\n
For some competitors, the opportunity is deeply personal.<\/p>\n
“This organization has given me a lot of professional opportunities which, as someone who comes from a low income and as a first-generation student, those opportunities are seen as really rare for me,” Castillo said. “When students compete, we’re being judged by real-life professionals that have real insight into our future careers.”<\/p>\n
Organizers say the impact extends beyond the students.<\/p>\n
They estimate the event is bringing in thousands of hotel stays and millions of dollars for local businesses, providing a significant economic boost to the Coastal Bend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of students are in the Coastal Bend for a SkillsUSA competition, gaining real-world experience while generating a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-241432","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\/241432","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=241432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}