HCC students went for the gold

By Angela Lingg

Hutchinson Community College hosted a Skills USA competition on April 19. Hutchinson High School collaborated with HCC to host the competition.

The competitions were held on HCC’s campus, at Hutchinson High School, at the State Fairgrounds and Atrium Convention Center.

According to Janet Hamilton, Department 2 Co-chair, HCC will be hosting the Skills USA competition in the foreseeable future. In an effort to try and consolidate the competition into fewer locations, HCC will be hosting most of the Kansas Skills USA competitions.

There are still a few competitions that will be held in schools in eastern Kansas and a few in Wichita.

“Our motivation for having the whole thing here is getting high school students on campus. They see our labs and if they have any interest in CTE programs maybe they will consider Hutch,” Matt Malone said.

Malone said that the state fairgrounds and several of the HCC buildings and labs helped keep all of the competitions close.

When the Sports Arena expansion work is complete, the arena will be used to host the opening and closing ceremonies.

According to the co-lead advisor for the competition, Matt Malone, the competition prepares students for their future careers.

“It’s a combination of the advisors and industry and what we are doing is getting the students ready for the work force and what’s involved in that,” Malone said.

The competition is also a chance for students to be noticed by future employers.

“They [the students] are always expected bring a resume when they come in for state and national competitions,” Malone said. “We have students that have gotten jobs at the state competition and national competitions. You never know where your resume is going to go and that’s a great contact between the student and the employer.”

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