North Point students place in Top 10 at SkillsUSA
The Charles County Sheriff’s Office announced that Sabreeya Holly, Madison Meade, and Karla Dizon — sophomores from North Point High School’s Criminal Justice program — placed 10th in the nation in the 2019 SkillsUSA National Competition held in late June in Kentucky.
SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to help students excel in their occupational interest.
The organization is a national association helping middle school, high school and college students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and service occupations.
The students competed in the Crime Scene Investigation competition against several teams from across the nation. Their coach, Charles County Sheriff’s Officer Melanie Tyner, prepared the girls for several months prior to the actual competition. During competition, the students processed a mock crime scene. They were evaluated and scored on their abilities to legally search for, properly collect and recover evidence of the crime scene. One member of the team was required to lift a latent fingerprint from a pre-selected item of evidence. After the scene was processed, they wrote a report, sketched the scene and properly marked evidence.
“I am beyond proud of these girls for placing in the top ten nationwide. They worked so hard to get here and their training and dedication to the competition paid off,” Tyner said. “It is rewarding for me and everyone else who mentored and coached them to see our students succeed. The program builds their confidence and they learn leadership skills which ultimately will help them as they transition into adults.”
Along with Tyner, the students attribute their success to the mentoring they received from former NPHS Criminal Justice students who previously competed in SkillsUSA; Brandon Theodore-Rodriguez, Jackie Zhang, Ethan Snyder, and Michael McCloskey. They worked with the team and provided pointers on how to successfully compete in the CSI portion. “They were a big help to us and we truly appreciate them taking their time to mentor us,” Dizon said.
“Officer Tyner helped us throughout the whole process, from learning in the classroom to competing nationally. Her remarkable coaching helped guide and steer us in the right direction and we definitely built confidence in ourselves,” Meade said.
In order for students to compete nationally, they have to compete regionally and state-wide, which they did, placing first in both regional and state levels.
“I am proud of the work these young students did to make it to the national level and I’m equally proud of all of our officers and volunteers who coached them to this point,” said Charles County Sheriff Troy D. Berry. “We invest in many youth programs and we believe the SkillsUSA program offers students an opportunity to see what a career in police work is like.”