10 National SkillsUSA Champions for Manatee Technical College

(Bradenton, FL—June 28, 2017)   Manatee Technical College has 10 new SkillsUSA National Champions.  MTC students brought home 4 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 1 bronze medal from the 2017 National SkillsUSA Leadership and Skills Conference.  The week-long showcase of career and technical education students is an industry-sponsored event held in Louisville, Kentucky.

MTC’s programs performed very well at the national competition in the college division.  Gold medalists were Patrick Kelly for Marine Service Technology, Nashalye Nazario-Mendez and Emily Ingram for Nail Care, and Matthew Vreman and Belinda Velez for Web Design.  Silver medalists were Alexander Woodham and Lynda Carrel for Business Management and Technology Career Pathways Showcase, Mark Delibertis for Firefighting, and Jasmine Griffith for Nurse Assisting.  Maria Carlos was the bronze medalist for the Technical Computer Applications contest.

During the awards ceremony, MTC students Craig DeToma and Matthew Vreman were honored with US President Volunteer Service Awards.  DeToma earned a Lifetime award for volunteering over 4,000 hours.  Vreman earned a Gold award for over 250 hours of community service in 12 months.

Students often describe the Championships to be like the Olympics for career and technical education.  Over 6,000 of the top students from across the U.S. compete against each other and the clock in 100 different occupational and leadership team and individual contests.  According to SkillsUSA, these competitions establish industry standards for entry-level workers in many fields.

MTC had 47 contestants representing the state of Florida and competing in 27 contests.  MTC students placed in the top 10 in 15 of those contests.

According to the SkillsUSA website, more than 600 business, industry and labor organizations support SkillsUSA at the national level.  The mission of SkillsUSA is to empower its members to become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens.  SkillsUSA improves the quality of our nation’s future skilled workforce through the development of personal, workplace and technical skills grounded in academics.

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