SkillsUSA is a career technical education program that provides leadership training to students and instructors in career technical education sectors. Regional SkillsUSA competition is held at SJ Delta College where the students competed in Architectural Drafting, Audio/Radio Broadcasting, Community Action Project, Digital Cinema, Photography and Technical Drafting. At CCHS we offer SkillsUSA as an award winning after school club.

“Students requirements are that all students must belong in a program or in a CTE pathway,” stated Mrs. Rivera, Skills USA adviser. Originally, Mrs. Rivera became apart of Skills USA because she is the CTE teacher at CCHS. CTE stands for Career Technical Education and is a focus of California’s education in the modern world. The school needed to choose a CTSO which is Career Technical Student’s Organization. Mrs. Rivera has been apart of Skills USA for 4 years now. She has helped with personal skills, workplace skills, and technical skills grounded academics. Mrs. Rivera added, “It can be useful for college and career, but students that aren’t heading to college instead start their careers in technical education.”

Some events in Skills USA, are community service, community action project, engineering, drafting, video, TV radio and audio, and digital cinema. Mrs. Rivera also wants to add more fundraisers and events so that CCHS can send students out of town to compete as well. “I’m always looking for motivating students that are interested in competing,” Mrs. Rivera commented. Some of the new events being added are as follows: Community Service, Criminal Justice, First Aide CPR, Graphic Imaging, Job Skill Demo, Medical Terminology, Pin Design, Screen Printing, and T-shirt Design. 

Awards that are earned are gold, silver, and bronze medals depending on the competitions. This past years award winners from Cesar Chavez included:

• Architectural Drafting, “Advanced to State” Raymond Betis, Daniel Esquivel, Christian Fernandez and Kelvin Luk
• Audio/Radio Broadcasting, “Gold” (first place) Jennifer Marroquin and Melissa Villa
• Community Action Project, “Gold” (first place) Joycelyn Phillips and Sanjesh Singh
• Digital Cinema, “Gold” (first place) John Castrence and Chelsea Vang “Silver” (second place) Ahmed Naveed and Mark Ruiz
• Photography “Advanced to State” Janmarie Bongcaron

State SkillsUSA competition, Ontario Convention Center, Ontario, CA award winners:

• Community Action Project, “Gold” (advance to Nationals) Joycelyn Phillips and Sanjesh Singh

Nationals SkillsUSA competition held in Louisville, Kentucky award winners:

• Community Action Project, “Gold” Joycelyn Phillips and Sanjesh Singh