Cape Tech Presentation Chosen For Atlantic Competition

HARWICH – For the fifth year in a row, Cape Cod Regional Technical High School is being honored as a Model of Excellence School by SkillsUSA. It is one of 24 schools across the nation being recognized for exceptional integration of personal, workplace and technical skills.

“This is the highest honor bestowed on chapters by SkillsUSA, which is the number one workforce development organization working to empower students to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders and responsible community members,” the organization announced.

The Model of Excellence program promotes the intentional learning of personal, workplace and technical skills. The hand-on approach enhances the SkillsUSA mission as students take the lead on all activities and practice the skills that employers seek, including communication, teamwork and problem solving.

The 24 schools selected as Models of Excellence will make presentations at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta in June. A panel of judges will evaluate each school’s program based on goals, student-led plan for action, results and final evaluation of the SkillsUSA framework.

The Cape Tech chapter submitted three projects this year, according to Peggy Reilly-O’Brien, the school’s SkillsUSA coordinator. All projects had to be tied to a SkillsUSA framework.

Tech’s Freshmen Professional Development Presentation was chosen to be presented in Atlanta. It is a teaching tool so new students can learn all about SkillsUSA and its framework. Participants made personal videos about an aspect of the SkillsUSA framework and talked about how it influenced their lives. These were shown as part of the presentation, along with informational slides about competition, community service, and the many other opportunities afforded by being involved in SkillsUSA, according to Reilly-O’Brien.

Based on student presentations, three of the 24 Model of Excellence chapters will be chosen as grand champions at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta.

Other projects submitted by Tech included a school-wide winter warm clothing drive through which 1,500 items of gently used clothing were collected from students and staff. The clothing was donated to The Family Pantry of Cape Cod. The project demonstrated teamwork and involved 10 teams made up of individual shops, academic classrooms and administrative staff which competed against each other to see who could get the most donations for the drive, said Reilly-O’Brien.

The second project was a paint night scholarship fundraiser. Alumni/artist Nicholas Heaney guided staff and students through the steps in creating a Cape Cod beach scene. The 28 participants raised $500 for scholarships for Cape Tech students.

The Chapter officers from Cape Tech who worked on the Freshmen Professional Development Presentation included Sean Gillette, Reaghan Rogers, Cierra Hoyt, Damian Cook, Daunte Gray, Isaiah Johnson, Hunter McGrath, Naomi Maloney and Jeanly Valerio.