CCTI students show off skills at competition
Hannah Reed, junior graphic design student from Panther Valley, won a gold medal in the pin design competition and will advance to the state competition. CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
Peyton Burns is a junior cosmetology student from Panther Valley.
Amber Curran is a senior DECA member from Lehighton.
December was a busy and successful month for CCTI students in two district competitions.
More than 40 SkillsUSA students competed in 39 events and earned gold, silver or bronze medals in 31 of those contests, which is an impressive success rate.
The students had the opportunity to show their skills and prowess in both their technical areas and soft skills. Host sites included Susquehanna CTC, Johnson College, Luzerne County Community College, and Toyota of Scranton.
CCTI SkillsUSA advisers are Kevin Kuehner, Lisa Walck, Nate Rinda and Jeff Hazelton. First-place students are now preparing for the state competition in Hershey in April.
Peyton Burns, a junior cosmetology student from Panther Valley, said, “My experience at SkillsUSA was amazing. I think SkillsUSA is so much more than just winning a medal. It gives you many great opportunities to meet new people and experience all the different techniques they apply. SkillsUSA also teaches persistence. It gives you the feeling of never wanting to quit because the end result will be worth it.”
Hannah Reed, junior graphic design student from Panther Valley, won a gold medal in the pin design competition and will advance to the state competition.
She displayed her competition board showing her winning design and presentation. The pin depicted concepts of both Pennsylvania and SkillsUSA including Pennsylvania’s state colors, iconic scenery of deer, pine trees and a steam train.
The CCTI SkillsUSA Community Service Project team, and their home schools, included Kadin German, sophomore marketing student, Palmerton; Austin Schweibinz, junior precision machine technology student, Lehighton; and Kayla Nothstein, junior marketing student, Palmerton.
The team joined together with students to help out Jaden Leiby, a North Schuylkill football player who was injured, and his family with the medical expenses.
They sold Jaden T-shirts at $10 each and bracelets at $2 each. They sold a total of $560 in T-shirts, and $48 in bracelets, for a total of $608 total for Jaden. The next event we held was Staff Dress-Down Day. The team raised a total of $285 from this event.
The most recent event held was a spaghetti dinner. It is the most profitable fundraising event to date. A total of 32 people dined in for a total of $480, and 61 people did take out for a total of $620, resulting in $1,087 raised.
The team was assisted by many students and staff members.
For the Staff Dress-Down Days and the spaghetti dinner the marketing students made flyers and promoted the events.
For the spaghetti dinner, the marketing students distributed the flyers throughout the county. Students also faxed the flyers to multiple schools and their football teams such as Lehighton Area High School, Palmerton Area High School, Tamaqua Area High School, North Schuylkill High School, Panther Valley High School, and Jim Thorpe Area High School.
The Culinary Arts department prepared and served the spaghetti dinner. The team plans to host more events to raise money for the family in the future. They have raised $1,400 through all of the events and donations.
