Four Riverside City College students have qualified for the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference, which will be held June 25-29 in Louisville, KY. Each year, 16,000 individuals — from students to teachers to business partners — participate in the weeklong event.
To reach the national finals, students had to capture gold in their respective state championship event. RCC captured gold medals in Graphics Imaging Sublimation -Phuong Vu; Advertising Design - Wade Abbas; Graphic Communications - Sotheara Ly; and Photography - Daniel Gamboa.
In all, eight students captured medals at the SkillsUSA California 51st Annual State Leadership and Skill Conference at the Ontario Convention Center. Eva Afghani captured the silver medal in Advertising Design; in Graphic Communications, where the College swept the award, Daniel Long won silver and Dustin Balugay took the bronze; and in Photography, Roxanne King captured bronze.
The SkillsUSA Championships in Kentucky are competitive events, showcasing the best career and technical education students in the nation. The event, which is held at the Kentucky Events Center, occupies a space equivalent to 16 football fields. Each year more than 6,000 contestants compete in 100 events. Nearly 1,500 judges and contest organizers from labor and management make the national event possible.
SkillsUSA is the largest demonstration career annual competition in the nation. Over 300,000 high school and college-level students participate in regional, state and national competitions each year. The philosophy of the national competition is to reward students for excellence, to involve industry in directly evaluating student performance, and to keep training relevant to employers’ needs.