BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Entrepreneurship, digital cinema, I.T., leadership.
Those are just several of the 36 categories 109 ROC CTEC students took on at the SkillsUSA regional competition in January.
"A good few months getting the entire idea together, getting all of the work together, making the book, designing,” said senior Karol Codilla.
SkillsUSA is a national nonprofit preparing middle school, high school and college students for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations.
"It’s really getting ready to go into the work world. It's really getting ready to apply the knowledge that you've learned to real world skills," said senior Logan Mulligan.
The ROC and CTEC students from Bakersfield created their own businesses.
"It was very interesting because I hadn't done that before and we had our own roles but it was a lot of fun because our product was a lot of fun," said senior Adara Calantas.
Their own presentations.
"It’s been a huge impact. I get to talk to a whole bunch of people and actually get inside information about how to plan things, what went into the actual process of getting everything set up and then you actually have to learn how to piece it all together," said junior Elijah Lidgett.
And short films.
“It was an amazing opportunity to be able to give us a challenge and see how it would be like in the real world [as] if you were to work in Hollywood," said junior Yareli Lares.
All of which they’re now working to improve even more for the state championships April 13-16 in Ontario.
“I just feel like everything we’ve worked for has put us here and I’m grateful for that," said senior Hadleigh Wilson.
Another shot at taking their skills even further, all while representing our community.
"I want to make that ten times better because I really do feel like I've been given a second chance to make my performance better so I'm going to take that second chance with pride," said junior Savana Drewry.
First-place winners from the state championships will be eligible to compete at the national SkillsUSA championships in June.
If you’d like to sponsor the students’ trip to the competition, click here.
