St. Clair TEC Champions

It was an exciting night for St. Clair TEC. When we arrive back in Michigan tomorrow we will be bringing 2 Gold Medals and a Silver. The students are pictured above with SkillsUSA Director Tim Lawrence.

Nick Shepley took home the gold in Precision Machining. Nick's score was so high he qualified for the new SkillPoint Award from SkillsUSA. It is part of their new Work Place Readiness program.
Alex Super took a gold in Mobile Electronics. This is a new contest this year at SkillsUSA.

Josiah Kreidler and Matt LaDuke won the silver in Audio Production. Their score was also high enough to get a SkillPoint Award.

Craig Wilder and James Quandt didn't get a medal but they were just shy coming in - in fifth place.
All the students and the advisors can't stop smiling. We are very proud and excited of our students.

Michigan By the Numbers

It was a big year for Michigan this year at the SkillsUSA National Conference. Michigan students came home with 28 medals - that is the most ever for Michigan!

Here’s a few interesting stats:

• Michigan was 10^th in the overall medal count by state. Pretty good considering Michigan was ranked 23^rd in total membership by state.
  
• Michigan had 9 National champions, ranking 11^th in gold medals by state.
  
  
• 88 of the 155 Michigan competitors were in the top 10 for their contest. That’s over 56%!
  

More Photos from Kansas City

SkillsUSA Nationals Week

More great shots from opening ceremonies... You have to love foam antlers.

SkillsUSA took up the entire Kansas City Convention Center!And it's a huge complex.

Craig and James competing in the Mechatronics competition.James and Craig competing in a new Robotino Demonstration CompetitionNick hard at work in his competition.

John, Josiah & Christy Kreidler enjoying the after glow!

Listen to Matt & Josiah's Project

Matt LaDuke's Post

Our Time in Coldstone

Coldstone is an ice cream parlor that makes there own ice cream. Mrs. Holladay took us there after opening ceremonies. I just wanted a little bit of a mix your own and I couldn’t find it on the menu so I found the smallest mix-in ice cream that they listed and it was called “mine”. Apparently I ordered from the “make your own tub of ice cream to take home with you to have at home” menu. When they started making my order I noticed that there was a lot of ice cream. It didn’t phase me that they were making a tub for me.

At the end of the line Mrs. Holladay and Josiah were waiting and wondering why it was taking so long. I had no idea why but we soon found out. The lady behind the counter handed a half-gallon tub of ice cream up to me with a little dish to “sample”. The little dish to sample was what I wanted in the first place but instead I got a whole container that cost about twice as much as what everyone else cost. I felt bad and offered to pay for it myself but Mrs. Holladay said, no its fine.

We were sitting in cold stone for a wile and the ice cream started to melt so I started eating it. I ended up eating the entire thing, the whole half-gallon or how ever much it really was. Needless to say I wasn’t feeling the best ever after that. I went to the hotel and lay in my bed till morning when I had to feel better.

Tour of KCTV5

Today we (Matt, Josiah and I - plus the TV Video team & Mr. Holladay) toured the KCTV5 along with Josiah's parents who made the trip down from Michigan. KCTV is the CBS affiliate in Kansas City - it is also my former employer. My friend Andrew who is a technical director generously offered his time to give us a tour. It was neat for the students (who have already toured WDIV in Detroit) see a different television station in a somewhat smaller market. After the tour we hit Murray's Ice Cream and Cookies - a great ice cream shop that makes all its own ice cream. Yum! We also met up with Matt's parents who just arrived by car to the city for tonight's award ceremony!

The rest of the guys headed to Cabella's for a manly adventure. They will share their stories later. But right now we are off to the award ceremony - stay tuned for the results.

Josiah's Blog...

Overall, I'm very glad I came. I've had a great week so far in every way. Last night we went to worlds of fun and it was very fun. And the competition, although somewhat different from what we had prepared for, went very well and I'm happy with our entry. We're excited for tonight's results, but have had a great time however it turns out.