Mt. Vernon Register-News

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May 13, 2011

RLC earns honors at SkillsUSA

Staff Report CNHI

INA — Rend Lake College took top honors in four categories at the recent Illinois SkillsUSA Leadership and Skills Conference, earning a chance to compete at the national level.

The conference was held in Springfield April 14 through 16 with RLC students competing in the categories of advertising design, architectural drafting, commercial baking, cosmetology, culinary arts and teamworks. RLC students swept the top six spots in architectural drafting, the top three spots in advertising design and the top two spots in culinary arts. RLC also claimed first place in the teamworks construction skills category, the first time a team competed in the category.

“The SkillsUSA group performed very well at the state competition and I feel the students were provided a challenging and rewarding experience,” said RLC SkillsUSA Coach Kevin Weston. “The students’ competitions ranged from four to 12 hours each. This was the college’s first attempt at fielding a teamworks team, which was given the task of framing a small structure, laying block and brick, plumbing and wiring in (12 hours).”

Weston said this was also the first year cosmetology students were involved in the competition.

The teamworks and advertising design contest winners are provided an industry travel reimbursement to go on to the SkillsUSA Nationals, along with the architectural drafting and culinary arts winners.

Winners were:

  • Advertising design-post secondary — first place, Victoria Price of Ewing; second place, Hailey Short of Norris City; third place, Alyssa Soler of Mt. Vernon.
  • Architectural drafting-post secondary — first place, Randy Jones of Bonnie; second place, Melissa Verdeyen of Hoyleton; third place, Tyler Dunahee of Centralia; fourth place, Colten Baker of Carterville; fifth place, Brandon Colgrave of Mt. Vernon; sixth place Felicia Brand of Pinckneyville.
  • Commercial baking-post secondary — third place, LaDonna Clardy of Harrisburg.
  • Cosmetology-post secondary — third place, Iris Ocasio of Mt. Vernon and model Angel Davis; fourth place, Mariah Jones of Mt. Vernon and model Melissa Kania; sixth place, Crystal Hart of Mt. Vernon and model Kelsey Smith.
  • Culinary Arts-post secondary — first place, Jeremy Hathaway of Harrisburg; second place, Travis Holder of Mt. Vernon.
  • Teamworks Construction Skills-post secondary — first place, Rend Lake College Team of Braden Aaron of Nashville, Nathan Guinzy of Ashley, Cal Muehlenbein of McLeansboro and Brandon Smith of Steeleville.

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