Technical Career Center students compete in SkillsUSA

Natasha Duelley and Isaac Branson, students with the Poplar Bluff Technical Career Center, traveled to Louisville, Kentucky for a week to compete in their chosen skills.

Duelley competed in nail care and Branson competed in collision repair and technical information. Both were able to travel to the competition after placing first in the state competition back in April.

Duelley placed ninth at SkillsUSA and Branson placed 14.

Isaac Branson uses a simulation to practice welding at the SkillsUSA competition. Photo provided

The competition was part of SkillsUSA, which includes competition between students from 53 states and provinces in over 100 different trade areas. The winners of SkillsUSA will go on to SkillsWorld, which this year will take place in Russia.

“To me, I enjoy doing the whole competition,” Branson said. “You just walk in and as long as you have the mindset that you’re just there to work, it’s no big deal. Just go there and have fun. If you win, cool, but if not there’s so many scholarship opportunities and for me going to college it’s a big deal. So many vendors. Just to get your foot in the door at something like this.”

Both plan to work in the areas they’ve been studying at PBTCC. Duelley received her certification in cosmetology last week and Branson will be attending Glenn Technical Institute starting in fall.

Under nail care at the state competition, Duelley had to paint manikin hands and chose a spring garden theme since the competition was taking place during the spring. She had to do one hand using gel nail polish — which doesn’t dry on its own and has to be cured under a light lamp in order to harden — and the other she had to use acrylic paint which nail artists will use for more detailed design.

At nationals, she brought one of her friends with her to serve as a model and she did nails inspired by the movie “Lady and the Tramp.” While she wasn’t in the cosmetology competition, she was able to watch some of it.

“I thought it was really cool,” she said. “I wasn’t in the cosmetology competition for hairstyling, but I got to see some of the cool updos that they did, I got to see some of the barbering that they did.”

Meanwhile, for collision repair Branson had to provide an estimate to gauge cost of repairs on a vehicle, before working on metal refinishing, plastic repair, frame straightening and welding.

Both received a skill point certificate for competing, but ended up leaving with more than the certificate. Along with the competition, the students were able to visit with vendors and industry leaders in their specific areas which meant looking at new technology to use and making connections with people currently in the industry they’d like to get into.

Natasha Duelley competed in the nail care portion of the competition where she painted Lady and the Tramp themed nails on one of her friends. Photo provided

For Branson, that meant different car manufacturers such as Dodge, Ford and Jeep. However, he said it was encouraging to meet other students who were doing the same work and using the same techniques.

“You get to go in and you get to see what everybody else is doing,” Branson said. “It’s crazy to just see, I competed against people from New York, New Jersey, just random spots across the whole country and they were doing the same thing. It’s nice to walk in and see everybody’s doing the same thing the same way you’re doing (it) because it’s all through the same program.”

Along with the competition, the students at SkillsUSA went to different events around the city. The organization booked a local amusement park for a night where only SkillsUSA students were able to attend and they did the same for a Cincinnati Reds baseball game.

Isaac Branson competed in the collision repair and technical information part of the competition. Photo provided

Duelley is looking at going straight into the field now that she has earned her cosmetology license — her goal is to specialize in nail care — with the possibility of getting a teaching license to teach nail care at PBTCC, but Branson said he plans to compete in SkillsUSA again when he continues his education at Glenn Tech.

“Going to college is going to give me different aspects. Here, we spray solvent based paint … they focus more on the frame straightening. The instructor there, was surprised we go through so much here. He can’t get anybody to go to SkillsUSA, nobody wants to breakaway for a week. I asked him if I could go and he said ‘Definitely, if you’ve gotten this far then you’re definitely going next year.’”

While the two plan on following different paths after the competition, they both left with a positive view of the event and were glad they got the chance to go.

“I didn’t realize how big it was going to be in that sense it was shocking in that way,” she said. “Nationals was nothing like I’ve ever seen and I’ve been to Wizard World Con that has hundreds upon thousands of people go and it still felt so much bigger than that.”