THE RESULTS ARE IN
by Ken Francis
May 05, 2008
The Construction Trades division of the Skills USA competition that took place earlier in April, is now history and, once again, our AVC construction class took second place in the state, out of 3 participating schools with 4 separate construction crews competing.
Out of the four students chosen to represent the AVC, two were from the Stockton area (Jerod Staver and Aaron White), and the others were from River Ridge (Sam Albrecht and Matt Altfillisch). Aaron also attended last year's event as well.
This years competition was similar to the year before, in that brickwork, electric and plumbing were, again, needed to be done and a supply of the needed materials, including lumber, were provided by local Sparta merchants for the students to use. A larger form of last year's 6x6 foot working platform was to be built, which was similar in shape and purpose.
Additionally, after the opening ceremonies on Friday morning (where the different crews saw the designated project on paper for the first time), work began at 10 AM and went to 4:30, with the exception of a lunch period and a couple of short breaks. In the interest of fairness, all the crews started and stopped at the same time.
The work continued on Saturday by starting at 8 AM and ending at noon. What was then accomplished to that point (both positive and negative), was assessed and judged by a panel of 3 independent judges, who happen to be owners of their own local construction companies. After the judging period, each group was then individually called to join the 3 judges at their projects, for a critiquing session as to what they saw as positive points and some very helpful constructive criticism.
The following weekend, Sam Albrecht attended the Individual competition conference in Springfield, where a somewhat similar situation took place, except that he worked alone. It was learned later the next week that out of the 29 other students chosen as semi-finalists, Sam came in 12th in the state. All 4 students from the AVC construction class received a silver medal and a new 'Kobalt' tool bag, filled with brand new carpenter tools. Sam also came home with the Second place trophy as well.
Congratulations to all who participated in this year's event.
