Skills USA students excel
Left to right: Ian Carney- Gold in Regional Contest, Gold in California Contest, Advancing to The National Contest in Louisville in June, Albert Almandova-Napa Auto Parts, Daniel Bererra- Competed in State Contest, Tom Butler-Atascadero Unified School District Superintendent, Ryan Burgess-Silver in Regional contest, Silver in State Contest, Ryan Amborn-West Coast Auto & Towing, Charles Herrera-Automotive Instructor Atascadero High School, Bill Neely-Atascadero High School Principal. Courtesy photo.
Students win medals at state competition
–With the counsel of Rotarian, Ryan Amborn (owner of West Coast Auto and Towing), Charles Herrera, the auto shop instructor at Atascadero High School, built a team of young people and taught them about Power Mechanics. Herrera was able to take his team to the Skills USA regional competition in Paso Robles. Three of the students, Ryan Burgess, Ian Carney, and Daniel Bererra, won the honor of advancing to the California State Competition, held in San Diego.
In the Power Mechanics Division, at the state competition, Ian Carney won Gold, and Ryan Burgess won Silver. Carney will be advancing to The National Contest in Louisville in June.
Albert Almandova and Kelly Powers of NAPA Auto Parts in Atascadero donated personal prizes for each of the three students, a professional, rolling tool box. The tool boxes were presented to the three students at the weekly Atascadero Rotary Club luncheon, on Wednesday, April 20, where Charles Herrera introduced them to the Rotarians. The Atascadero Rotary Club has raised over $10,000 during the past year to help assist the AHS Auto Shop with needed tool upgrades.
In addition to that, The Rotary Club of Atascadero Foundation has developed an endowment to assist Career Technical Education students, with the goal of $40,000. This fund will help with special CTE projects at the school in perpetuity.
If you are interested in participating in the endowment, contact us through the club website www.AtascaderoRotary.org.
Career Technical Education is improving in the Atascadero Unified School District, with Superintendent Tom Butler and AHS Principal, Bill Neely, strongly advocating and building the programs, according to Rotarian Rich Johnson.
To find out more about the SkillsUSA competitions, go to http://www.skillsusa.org/
