I first began participating in Skills USA in my sophomore year of high school. At the time,
I was still exploring different aspects of my vocational area, Engineering and Robotics. I was taking a class called “Introduction to Engineering and Design.” At the time, I believed I would pursue a career as an design engineer. Therefore, I used the SkillsUSA Engineering and
Design competition as a trial run. I spent months working with my team to design an
Autonomous Cart. Our team’s idea was to make a cart that would automatically follow a person around while carrying their heavy tools and equipment. However, as sophomores, our team had limited practical knowledge of motor control systems and struggled to make the cart a reality.
Although my team
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She took me under her wing and we began to prepare for the Robotics and Automation
Technology competition. We spent countless hours working with and practicing with the Scorbot
Robotic arm. We won gold at the district level and bronze at the state level. However, I gained much more than medals from this opportunity. I gained a lifelong friend and mentor in my partner, Melanie. Furthermore, this competition showed me what I really wanted to do for a career. I wanted to be a computer programmer. I believe SkillsUSA is responsible for helping me mold my career path and helping me discover what I love about my trade. Next year, I major in Computer Engineering to further my knowledge of computer systems and coding.
However, my Skills USA experience is not yet over. I registered again to do the Robotics and Automation Technology competition, this time with a younger partner, Kerstien. I hope I can be a friend and mentor for Kerstein like Melanie was for me. We have been preparing for the states competition and are confident in our chances of winning a medal this year.
I first joined SkillsUSA looking to have some fun building a project and learning