Unitech students qualify for national conference
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UniTec Career Center is adjacent to the North County High School campus. File photo
SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference
Four students from the Unitec Career Center qualified for the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference, which will be held June 24-28 in Atlanta, Georgia, by finishing first in their category in the state of Missouri.Lane McDowell, a junior from North County, finished first in Electrical Building and Wiring. Bradyn Slade, a junior from North County, finished first in Motorcycle Technology. Dayne Schmeiderer and Brendan Luna, both seniors from Kingston High School, finished first in Mobile Robotics Technology.
Responding to the students’ first-place finish, Unitec Director Jeff Cauley said, “The kids really hit it out of the park!”
UniTec medalists, from left: Jake Lamb, Andrew Jones, Dalton Goodson, Dayne Schmeiderer and Brendan Luna. Dan Schunks
The state competition, which includes the winners from the 18 districts across Missouri, was held at State Tech in Linn, Missouri. To qualify for the state skills competition, students had to finish first or second in their district competition. Qualifying for state were 26 UniTec students, nine of whom medaled in the state competition. In addition to the four state winners, other students who medaled were Jake Lamb, second in Electrical Technology; Andrew Jones, third in Power Sports; Dalton Goodson, second in Power Sports; Matthew Laird and Lee Meinheartt, third in Urban Search and Rescue.
Dayne Schmeiderer and Brendan Luna both agreed that the atmosphere at the competition was “pretty cool.”
Luna said, “I saw everybody there having fun by still working at their trade.”
Schmeiderer added, “Seeing everyone do what they like—and us, also doing what we like—and helping the other teams out was just awesome.”
UniTec medalists, from left: Matthew Laird, Lee Mienheartt, Lane McDowell and Brayden Slade. Dan Schunks
Andrew Jones said, “I enjoyed the competition, and I enjoyed meeting all the people in my competition. It’s cool being able to meet a bunch of random people and seeing people on stage and learning, seeing where everyone’s from, all the different schools from all over the state.”
Jake Lamb said, “I liked being able to see all the different guys that competed, all the different methods and their ideas and mindsets on how they attack certain aspects of the competition. It allowed me to learn a lot while I was there, different ideas, different ways to do things.”
Lane McDowell, Bradyn Slade, Dayne Schmeiderer, and Brendan Luna will represent Missouri at the National Skills USA competition to be held June 25, in Atlanta, Georgia, and will be competing against state winners from across the country.
Several of the students involved are seniors whose future plans are as unique as the students themselves. They include attending college to major in mechanical engineering, applying to the IBEW, Local 1, attending pilot school in Florida, and going to college with aspirations to work at Boeing on missiles.
UniTec students participating at the state competition represented Farmington, Fredericktown, Bismarck, North County, West County, Kingston, Central, Potosi, and St. Paul’s high schools.
Dan Schunks is a staff writer for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at dschunks@dailyjournalonline.com.
