Building Skills, Building Futures – A Look Inside SkillsUSA

On this episode of Education Matters, we’re diving into the incredible world of SkillsUSA with a group of talented students from Colony High School! 🏅🔧✨

These students are sharpening their skills in welding, technical drafting, public speaking, and more—all while preparing for intense competitions that could shape their futures. Hear how SkillsUSA is helping them build real-world expertise, gain confidence, and develop the professional skills needed for life beyond high school.

From welding sculptures to nailing math competitions, their stories of hard work and perseverance will inspire you! Tune in now and discover why SkillsUSA is a game-changer for career and technical education.

Listen in as they discuss:

• ✅ The hands-on projects they’re tackling
• ✅ How SkillsUSA is preparing them for the workforce
• ✅ The valuable life skills they’ve gained—beyond just their trade
• ✅ Their best competition stories and what’s next for them

💡 Inspired by this episode? If you know a student who could benefit from SkillsUSA, share this episode with them!

📢 Join the conversation! Comment below and tell us: What’s the most valuable skill you’ve learned in school or your career?

⭐️ Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review—it helps more people discover the great things happening in our schools!

If you’re a student, parent, or educator interested in career and technical education, this episode is a must-listen!

🔗 Learn more about SkillsUSA: https://www.skillsusa.org/

🔗 Mat-Su Borough School District: https://matsuk12.us 

Show Information

🎙️ Education Matters is the official podcast of the Mat-Su Borough School District, highlighting students, teachers, and the innovative programs that make our schools great.

📲 Follow us on social media: https://www.facebook.com/akmatsuk12

📩 Got a story to share? Contact us at pio@matsuk12.us

Transcript

00:00:02:04 - 00:00:11:07
Speaker 1
Welcome to Education Matters, a podcast highlighting students, teachers and the great things happening in our schools and across the Mat-su Borough School District.

00:00:12:08 - 00:00:31:15
Speaker 2
Hi, John. Notes. Dean, public information officer, Matsubara school district. And this is Education Matters. I'm joined today by some great students from Kalani High School, and they are a part of the skills USA there. And they're going to tell us a little bit more about that. Let's start out. If you guys could just tell me your names and what you're competing in at skills USA.

00:00:31:17 - 00:00:36:22
Speaker 4
I'm Brandon, I'm competing for, well, in, first year doing it, so I'm pretty excited about that.

00:00:36:23 - 00:00:42:01
Speaker 5
I'm Jason, this is my second year here. But first, you're doing skills.

00:00:42:02 - 00:00:50:06
Speaker 6
Yeah. I'm Pax, and I did welding last year, and I'm doing the structure competition and, sculpture.

00:00:50:08 - 00:00:54:17
Speaker 7
And then I'm Austin, I'm competing in speech and then also math.

00:00:54:19 - 00:00:57:07
Speaker 3
I'm Gavin and I'm competing in technical drafting.

00:00:57:09 - 00:01:05:22
Speaker 2
Okay, so we got our welding crew, and then we got our other crew right here. How many how many welders do you guys have that compete in skills USA?

00:01:06:00 - 00:01:07:21
Speaker 5
I think it's about six, if I'm not mistaken.

00:01:07:23 - 00:01:09:06
Speaker 2
Yeah okay.

00:01:09:08 - 00:01:10:11
Speaker 4
I would agree with that.

00:01:10:13 - 00:01:13:10
Speaker 2
And how about you guys. What's your grand total at Kalani High?

00:01:13:14 - 00:01:24:19
Speaker 3
We have about six technical drafters and then about a team of six digital media kids. And then, others like Austin who are competing in like more of the speech and, some of the leadership skills.

00:01:25:01 - 00:01:35:00
Speaker 2
Okay. For those that don't know what skills USA is, how would you describe it? Give me like one sentence skills USA is this.

00:01:35:02 - 00:01:44:07
Speaker 3
Skills USA is a CTF so that works on partnering with students, teachers and industry professionals to build a skilled workforce for Alaska and the state and the United States.

00:01:44:09 - 00:01:50:06
Speaker 2
She didn't even read that. That's pretty impressive, right? Is that like part of your competition that you had to have that memorized?

00:01:50:06 - 00:01:58:00
Speaker 3
I am the Alaska State President for skills USA. So I've gone to a couple different I've done a lot of different speaking opportunities. All right. That's sweet.

00:01:58:00 - 00:02:11:02
Speaker 2
Nice work. Let's, tell me a little bit more about what are your competition looks like when you get there. And maybe you're new to this. You don't know, but what have you heard? So what? Each of you are kind of looking forward to what your competition looks like.

00:02:11:04 - 00:02:18:13
Speaker 4
I'm not I'm not yet to share for the first year, but now I know where it's going to be building a couple of, like, little structures and welding on them, testing out.

00:02:18:15 - 00:02:23:21
Speaker 2
Okay. And we've got an example here we're going to get to in a second. Right. Hopefully.

00:02:23:23 - 00:02:37:11
Speaker 5
In my opinion, if I'm not mistaken, it's, we're going to have a, steel project that we're going to do and then an aluminum project afterwards. It's section out. This is also my first year, so I'm not 100% sure.

00:02:37:13 - 00:02:39:16
Speaker 2
Have you been getting ready for that at all, though?

00:02:39:16 - 00:02:42:00
Speaker 5
Yeah, we've been practicing for majority of this year.

00:02:42:00 - 00:02:43:19
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah. Okay.

00:02:43:21 - 00:03:04:11
Speaker 6
Yeah. There's two different competitions for the you have the structure one which is all steel, and then you have the aluminum portion, like you said. And then there's also the structure one that I'm doing, which is you have the whole year to start a structure, sculpture. And you just build whatever you think you want and then just keep going on it.

00:03:04:11 - 00:03:10:21
Speaker 6
And once you get to the thing, it's a whole judging. And everyone that's built one puts them in alignment. You have a whole book that.

00:03:10:23 - 00:03:21:07
Speaker 2
Explains it all. Okay. So that structure is not built at the competition that's built throughout the year. And the structure that you brought with you is, is that your this year's competition is what your entering last year.

00:03:21:07 - 00:03:27:03
Speaker 6
Yeah. Last year okay 3D that's like coming in okay.

00:03:27:05 - 00:03:28:16
Speaker 2
How is that. Turn it out right now.

00:03:28:16 - 00:03:29:20
Speaker 6
Coming up pretty good so far.

00:03:29:20 - 00:03:34:06
Speaker 2
Yeah. And how did that how did you fare last year with that one?

00:03:34:07 - 00:03:37:16
Speaker 6
I was bike fishing a lot, so I kind of wanted to build a bike.

00:03:37:18 - 00:03:48:17
Speaker 2
Oh, yeah, but how did you what what did you end up? Did you place first place you got first place with that? Awesome. Okay. I'm guessing it's a little bit different for you guys. What are we competing in?

00:03:48:17 - 00:04:10:10
Speaker 7
Yeah. So I'm doing speech and math. Last year those were the two events that I did that I did very well in last year. The speech, it was like a 55 minute speech on, no limits. So having no limits and using that three skills USA and I took like a unique perspective. And I talked about like some famous people, I talked about Einstein and I also talked about like Tiger Woods, I'm a big golfer.

00:04:10:12 - 00:04:27:09
Speaker 7
And then I also did the math competition, which I'm a very long test taker, but I might make sure to do it well. So, I took like three hours on a math test late at night, then get down with that to like nine. The busses had already left. But yeah, doing that was fun.

00:04:27:11 - 00:04:38:16
Speaker 3
And then again, I'm competing in the technical drafting portion, so I get to sit in a computer lab for eight hours drawing a, design. So last year we did a butterfly valve. So we worked eight hours on drawing a butterfly valve on AutoCAD.

00:04:38:21 - 00:04:42:09
Speaker 2
And that's something you're looking forward to doing sitting for eight hours in a computer lab.

00:04:42:10 - 00:04:58:16
Speaker 3
It was pretty fun. We had a couple things go wrong. So they had to change some things up. And we got to kind of work with other people to get an idea of how we were going to start drawing it, because not all the numbers printed on the, the sheet, the reference sheets we were given. So we had to come up with more creative ideas of how to do it.

00:04:58:16 - 00:05:06:01
Speaker 3
So just finding a different way to look at something that seems to have only one solution and just figure out a way to do it. It was really fun.

00:05:06:03 - 00:05:22:00
Speaker 2
Okay, put your thinking caps on for this one. What's one of the best things you've learned from skills USA or preparing for skills USA? Because it sounds like you guys have done a lot of practicing to get ready for this competition. What's one of the best things? You know, one of those key moments that you've something you've learned this year?

00:05:22:02 - 00:05:39:08
Speaker 4
So being able to like weld learning on how well, because this is my first year. So I didn't really knowing how old I came. So then get be able to prepare for this was honestly kind of eye opening on how much I can actually do and how much I can put myself into something, get it done with the results I wanted so that was pretty exciting.

00:05:39:10 - 00:05:58:17
Speaker 5
For me, it's probably learning how to do some pipe work, welding with, 6010 rods and, 78 rods. Getting those down, getting them from the bottom all the way to the top was definitely a challenge. But, getting that through and I would say about a month and a half time was actually really fun for me.

00:05:58:19 - 00:06:02:10
Speaker 5
And, memorizing. Yeah.

00:06:02:12 - 00:06:13:20
Speaker 6
I'd probably say it's, learning to work with aluminum because there's lots of aluminum. Built, like, boats and stuff like that. And it's good to know to, like, repair stuff.

00:06:13:22 - 00:06:30:13
Speaker 7
Yeah, yeah. Something that's definitely helped for me is being ready to, like, learn on the fly, learn new things on the fly. Last year during the competitions, we didn't know exactly what time they'd be starting. And then also today, like not knowing what I'm really speaking on, but just being ready on the fly. And I think that's a great thing that I've learned here.

00:06:30:15 - 00:06:53:18
Speaker 3
I think the biggest thing for me is, how I just present myself in public. So I'm able to talk a lot easier now and do big presentations, such as a couple weeks ago, we did one for the Department of Education kind of presenting, and just being able to talk in front of a large group of people and share what skills USA is, and just being able to do that a lot easier and more comforting and reach out to industry partners, be able to build sponsorship deals and kind of show people what skills USA is.

00:06:53:18 - 00:06:55:17
Speaker 3
I think that's really been the biggest thing for me where.

00:06:55:18 - 00:06:57:17
Speaker 2
You do that deed presentation here.

00:06:57:19 - 00:06:58:08
Speaker 3
Anchorage.

00:06:58:08 - 00:07:11:02
Speaker 2
Oh, okay. Yeah. Cool. Let's do a little rapid fire speed round. We got to get you guys to board me. So we're going to go quick here. So you got to answer. Not a lot of thought I'm going to give you on this. What's what's your favorite breakfast cereal?

00:07:11:04 - 00:07:12:08
Speaker 4
I don't really know.

00:07:12:08 - 00:07:14:10
Speaker 2
Breakfast.

00:07:14:12 - 00:07:16:04
Speaker 5
We captain crunch.

00:07:16:06 - 00:07:17:18
Speaker 6
Cinnamon toast crunch. All right.

00:07:17:22 - 00:07:19:10
Speaker 7
100% sentimental screams.

00:07:19:14 - 00:07:20:18
Speaker 3
I don't eat cereal.

00:07:20:20 - 00:07:25:18
Speaker 2
Okay. Would you rather always have to dress formally or always wear pajamas?

00:07:25:20 - 00:07:26:15
Speaker 5
I would say formally.

00:07:26:17 - 00:07:27:15
Speaker 6
Probably for my.

00:07:27:17 - 00:07:28:15
Speaker 7
PJs.

00:07:28:17 - 00:07:29:17
Speaker 3
Formally.

00:07:29:19 - 00:07:42:16
Speaker 2
Guys, one piece. You guys are skills USA. I would expected formally across the board, but. Okay. What's your go to hype song before our competition? If you're going to get pumped up before a competition, what are you listening to?

00:07:42:18 - 00:07:44:10
Speaker 4
I don't really listen to anything, honestly.

00:07:44:13 - 00:07:48:01
Speaker 5
Okay. I'd say probably any song from Avenged Sevenfold.

00:07:48:03 - 00:07:50:13
Speaker 6
Cat country music.

00:07:50:15 - 00:07:54:12
Speaker 2
Just in general. Country music gets you hyped up. All right.

00:07:54:14 - 00:07:59:10
Speaker 7
This is our sports radio. Maybe I don't listen to music much.

00:07:59:12 - 00:08:00:03
Speaker 3
Listen to anything?

00:08:00:03 - 00:08:08:14
Speaker 2
Nothing, Mind space. Okay. If you had a superpower related to your career field, what would it be?

00:08:08:16 - 00:08:14:18
Speaker 4
Honestly, I saw a while. You just scroll down the play faster, so I keep on running. I keep on running and beans.

00:08:14:20 - 00:08:20:19
Speaker 5
Okay, I'd say, like freeze time or slow time down to get things done in a manner. Time.

00:08:20:21 - 00:08:23:13
Speaker 6
Probably laser vision. So I could cut that off.

00:08:23:15 - 00:08:26:19
Speaker 2
Yeah. You wouldn't even. Yeah, yeah. That's awesome.

00:08:26:21 - 00:08:30:20
Speaker 7
Okay. Highest IQ, smarter than Einstein.

00:08:30:22 - 00:08:33:06
Speaker 3
Be able to guesstimate sizes just by looking at them.

00:08:33:08 - 00:08:43:18
Speaker 2
Those are all some really good answers without a lot of thought. One more. What's the best advice you've ever received?

00:08:43:19 - 00:08:45:11
Speaker 4
Honestly, I can't really tell you that for.

00:08:45:12 - 00:08:46:07
Speaker 2
Okay.

00:08:46:09 - 00:08:48:10
Speaker 4
I received a lot of good advice.

00:08:48:12 - 00:08:54:07
Speaker 5
I'd say, perfect things takes time. Yeah.

00:08:54:09 - 00:08:57:23
Speaker 6
Probably. Say practice makes perfect because the more practice you get, the better you are.

00:08:58:03 - 00:09:01:00
Speaker 2
Definitely applies in welding, right? Yes.

00:09:01:02 - 00:09:12:04
Speaker 7
Probably that there there will always be some sort of ups in life. There always be something to go back on, get some confidence on, always be happy on. And time will tell if like, great things happen.

00:09:12:06 - 00:09:19:20
Speaker 3
I think for me, building connections, finding new paths of how to get to where you want. Just keep trying and keep exploring those paths and just build the connections to get there.

00:09:19:22 - 00:09:24:20
Speaker 2
Okay? Why should someone join skills USA?

00:09:24:22 - 00:09:39:10
Speaker 3
Training skills USA will teach you valuable skills and it can help you get a, go into a trade straight out of high school and just teach you a lot of life skills that are really important, whether it's a technical line such as welding or beach, just be able to speak in front of a crowd and just joining.

00:09:39:10 - 00:09:44:14
Speaker 3
Skills USA can help teach a lot of things like that. And yeah, just get you somewhere straight out of the gate.

00:09:44:16 - 00:09:57:13
Speaker 2
Awesome. Thank you all very much for joining me. We're going to get you off to the board meeting. You're going to, you know, talk to them a little bit and, maybe answer a few questions that they might have for you. So thank you very much for joining me today. This is great.

00:09:57:17 - 00:09:58:03
Speaker 7
Thank you.

00:09:58:05 - 00:09:59:00
Speaker 3
Thank you. Yes.