MAC Students Medal at Skills USA National Competition

MAC Career and Tech Students Earn Gold, Silver at National Competition

Two teams of Mineral Area College students recently earned national accolades at this year’s SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference held June 19 – 23 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Both MAC teams competed in the College and Post-Secondary Engineering and Technology events for robotics, bringing home gold and silver medals in the competition, which had them facing qualifying teams from the United States and abroad. The teams completed various tasks over the three-day competition, including competition trial runs, team interviews, and timed competition event runs.

Jacob Drennen of Cadet and Dean Parker of Park Hills were champions in the Mobile Robotics event, which judges students on robot design, construction, and programming, as well as the ability to communicate their design process.  

Jacob Rosener of Bonne Terre and Isabelle Bruckerhoff of Gerald earned the silver medal in Urban Search and Rescue, which challenges students to create a mobile robot like those employed by emergency service personnel to secure an area by locating, neutralizing, moving, and disposing of explosive materials.

The MAC teams qualified for the national event by winning their respective categories in the Missouri state competition held at State Tech in Linn this past March. Eric Shelton, Advanced Manufacturing Instructor and sponsor of MAC’s Skills USA chapter, says competing at the national level is a great way for students to measure the quality of their education.

“Sometimes a student may question whether what they learned in college is useful at all. Or maybe they feel they would have learned better somewhere else,” Shelton said. “I am proud that these MAC students were able to see that the education they received helped them to prepare to compete and succeed among the best. These students can be confident that they possess the knowledge and skills to be successful in their future professions. They have done exceptional work in every class or project with me and their future looks bright!”

SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers, and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. Including alumni, SkillsUSA membership totals over 393,000. SkillsUSA has served nearly 14 million annual members cumulatively since 1965 and is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor as a successful model of employer-driven workforce development.

For more information about Skills USA at MAC, contact Shelton at eshelton@mineralarea.edu or 573-518-2132.