Career center students take first at Skills USA

GRAVETTE — Three students from the Western Benton County Career Center won first-place honors at the state Skills USA competition last month in Hot Springs. As first-place winners, they will now go to the national Skills USA competition in Atlanta, Georgia, June 19-23, where they will compete against other top students from across the country.

Acey Funk and Alex Pendleton, both of Gravette, received their first-place award for benches they built in welding classes at WBCC. The benches were made and donated to Billy V. Hall Senior Activity Center and the Gravette Public Library as a community action project. Brantly Jones earned a first-place award in automotive service technology. All three students are looking forward to the national competition, and if they place first in Atlanta, the next step is a trip to the international competition in France.

Students from Gravette, Gentry, Decatur, Siloam Springs, Pea Ridge, Bentonville and Bentonville West schools attend classes at the career center. This is the first year that welding students have attended state Skills USA competition but it is the third year that automotive service students have won awards at state, according to instructor Robert Willaby.

Willaby said that another automotive service student, Sophia Shefchik, took third place at state in job demonstration skills. Sophia earned her award by taking apart a transmission and rebuilding it, explaining each step in the process as she worked. The demonstration had to be done in eight minutes.

Welding instructors Tyler Simpson and Terry Whiteside also reported other state winners in the Skills USA welding competition. The team of Brady Snoderly and Spencer Black took third place in community action project by building 10 firepits and donating them for use at an RV park. The team of Nic Hiett, Joe Sandoval and Gavin Swain placed second in welding fabrication by building several firepits of a different style.

Other WBCC welding students who placed at state were Zavier Settles, who placed third in welding sculpture with a T Rex he created; Leanna Rodriguez, who placed second in individual welding, and Will Davis, who placed third in individual welding. The individual welding winners were asked to demonstrate stick welding, MIG welding, TIG welding, and oxy-fuel welding.

Since only a limited number of students could attend the state Skills USA competition in Hot Springs, a local welding and automotive service competition was held at WBCC on May 4 to give all students a chance to display their skills.

(Submitted Photo) Brantly Jones displays the banner he received as a firstplace winner in automotive service technology at the state Skills USA competition in Hot Springs. Brantly is a student in the automotive service classes at the Western Benton County Career Center.

(NWA Democrat-Gazette/Susan Holland) Welding instructors Tyler Simpson (left) and Terry Whiteside (right) pose with Acey Funk and Alex Pendleton, who won first place honors in the state Skills USA competition with the park bench they built for the Billy V. Hall Senior Activity Center. The bench and another built for the Gravette Public Library were made as a community action project. Funk and Pendleton will be going to Atlanta, Ga., in June for the national Skills USA competition.

(Submitted Photo) Funk (seated) and Pendleton, both of Gravette, pose with the bench they made and donated to the Billy V. Hall Senior Activity Center.