The night before April 20, the Doubletree Hilton Hotel in Ontario, California, was filled with anxious teenagers settling into their rooms. They were all dressed in uniforms pertaining to their specialty: chef’s hats, scrubs, full khaki with hard toe boots, or the catch-all red blazer with black slacks. The next day, the SkillsUSA state championship would begin.

During the event, which ran April 20- 22, students from Clark competed in three separate divisions: Career Pathways Showcase, CNC Milling Specialist, and Digital Cinema Production. Unfortunately, the Cinema team was disqualified, but Clark took gold in the Career Pathways Showcase, and swept all three medals in the CNC Milling Specialist competition.

Students from Dominique Evans-Bye’s Environmental GIS presented to judges their project, in which they used ArcGIS software to track and collect marine debris. The direct impact this project had on the Anacapa Island environment and professionalism all played into the judges’ criteria, leading them to the gold medal.

For the CNC milling specialist competition, competitors individually created a program that would correctly produce a part as indicated solely by a blueprint.

“On Friday, I really didn’t do anything because my competition was on Saturday, so I just spent most of the day studying for my event, and then on Saturday I woke up at 5:50 or something, got ready, and then competed from 7:30 to noon,” said senior Alexander Fenyes, who placed silver in CNC Milling specialist. “I was happy that I was finished but it wasn’t that much of a nuisance, it was more of like ‘I want to go eat lunch now.’”

“Mr. Black really helped us prepare, and seven of us left, and we got the top seven places,” junior Beatris Avanessian said. While no official scores have been released, those top seven places also were said to have been very close.

In case of a tie within a competition, scores from a 50-question test on the code of conduct would be compared to decide the winner. This code of conduct was explained during the opening ceremony on April 19, where prospective competitors also recited the SkillsUSA pledge, promising to always strive to do more, and seek reward in that, instead of what their job can offer in return.

Once the competition ended April 21, the competitors took some time to celebrate before going to sleep and going home the next day. “After the competition we celebrated by going to In N Out,” said senior Richard Viloria.