EVIT Students take leadership steps at SkillsUSA

East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT) students know that it takes more than basic skills to compete in the workforce today. That's why 13 EVIT students took time from their Fall Break to attend the Fall Leadership Conference for SkillsUSA at the Phoenix Convention Center last week.

The state-wide Fall Leadership Conference is SkillsUSA's kick-off event for the school year. SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce.

Bringing home the gold

Three EVIT students made us especially proud last week, when they competed at the national level and brought home gold medals.

Dozens of EVIT students participated in the Health Occupations Students of America and SkillsUSA national conferences, both of which were held last week. As usual, EVIT brought home lots of honors, including the three gold medals.

HOSA

*Laura Kulas, allied health, won a first place gold medal in pharmacology by beating out about 50 other competitors.

Laura Kulas with her HOSA gold medal.

*EVIT's HOSA team earned the honor of making the largest contribution to the organization's national service project. Each HOSA chapter was asked to raise money for Autism Speaks, and EVIT students raised $6,125 during the school year -- a much higher amount than any other group.


*Gema Martinez, health foundations, received the Barbara James Service Award for donating the most volunteer hours to a hospital (she volunteered 175 hours!).

*Two EVIT students (Cassandra Srutowski and Laura Kulas) placed in the top 10 percent of the Kaiser Permanente scholarship challenge.

*Both of EVIT's "HOSA bowl" teams cracked the top 32, making it to the second round for the first time ever! Congrats to bowl team members Cassandra Srutowski, Nidhisha Patel, Ashley Baeumlisberger, Alex Rist, Austin Roper, Krystal Jovel and Jodi Copeland.

SkillsUSA

*EVIT radio students Breanna Bullis and Nicole Bird beat out teams from 17 other states to bring home gold medals in the radio broadcasting competition.

Breanna Bullis (left) and Nicole Bird with teacher Steve Grosz.

*Fire student Alec Langton placed 7th out of 26.

*Cosmetology student Jessica Watson placed 6th out of 52.

*Culinary student Kimberly Hodges placed 5th out of 30.

*15-year-old baking student Calena Srutowski placed 11th out of 40.

*Half of the EVIT students participating in the competitions placed in the top 7 of their contests.

Great job to all who competed! You made us proud!

EVIT students compete at the national level

Dozens of students are representing EVIT this week at two major national conferences.

Several EVIT students are attending the National Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) Leadership Conference in Orlando, after placing high in the state competition in April.

Several others are competing at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Kansas City, after winning gold medals in their state contests in April.

Wish them luck, and check back here next week to see how they did!

EVIT auto program receives large tool donation

The EVIT automotive technology program received a very generous donation from Lowe's, Kobalt Tools and SkillsUSA this week: $1,100 worth of tools!


The donation was given as part of the national Toolbox for Education Program. EVIT teacher Derek Hall and students Ola Wladyszewski and Ted Cheeseman went down to the Lowe's of Tempe store on Wednesday to thank store manager Jaime Cordova and collect the donation.


The students were very excited to see how many new tools they were getting.

EVIT students snatch 23 medals at SkillsUSA

Twenty-three EVIT students brought home medals from the SkillsUSA Arizona Championships this week!

Firefighting:
Gold: Alec Langton
Silver: Colston Dunkelbarger
Bronze: Jacob Eustace

Radio production:
Gold: Bre Bullis and Nicole Bird

Collision:
Gold: Nick Gaffney
Silver: Paul Gilesspie

Cosmetology:
Gold: Jessica Watson
Silver: Reannon Dame

Food and Beverage:
Gold: Kimberly Hodges
Bronze: Steven Hawkins

Commercial Baking:
Gold: Calena Srutowski
Silver: Lianna Chinappi

Masonry:
Gold: Matt Woodhall

Advertising Design:
Silver: Patrick Griffin
Bronze: Christi Castaneda

3D Animation:
Gold: Matt Weldon and John Lilly
Silver: Kris Saddler and Korey Duhamell

Computer Repair:
Silver: Kyle Rasmussen

Level 2 Basic Auto:
Gold: Luis Gamez-Valenzuela
Bronze: Chan Aye

EVIT had 125 secondary and post-secondary students participate in the competition, which was held at the Phoenix Convention Center on April 12 - 13. The event involved 80 different contests with nearly 2,000 Arizona students competing.

Good luck to the gold medalists, who will go on to compete in SkillsUSA's National Leadership and Skills Conference in Kansas City in June.

EVIT students dominate at SkillsUSA regionals

EVIT hosted the SkillsUSA Region 3 Conference on Saturday, where about 250 students from the area competed in 12 different career and technical contests.

More than 40 EVIT students walked away with awards and many will go on to compete at the Arizona State Championships in April.

Here are a few photos from the event:


To see more photos, check out our photo album on Flickr.

Here are the EVIT winners:

Radio

First: Nicole Bird and Bre Bullis
Second: Cheyne Quitasol and James Blakely
Third: Jeff Wright and Jacob Driscoll

Law Enforcement

First: Michael Miranda
Second: Jeremy Gebo
Third: Christian Bircher

Computer Repair/Maintenance

First: Chris Norzagaray and Marcos Ortega
Second: Vincent Williams and Neftaly Rocha
Third: Kyle Rasmussen and Bradley Anderson

Video

First: Caleb Greenwood and Jordan Gorla
Third: Ashley Arredondo and Robert Donofrio

Prepared Speech

First: Nicole Bird

Auto, Level 2

First: Luis Gamez-Valenzuela
Second: Matthew Aceves
Third: Chan Eye

Auto, Level 3

First: Jesse Knox
Second: Connor Lavanaway
Third: Brendan Quinlan

Cosmetology

First: Jessica Watson
Second: Reannon Dame
Third: Hayli Braithwhite

Masonry

First: Matt Woodhall
Second: Landon Boren
Third: Alejandro Garcia

Carpentry

First: Brendon Clark
Second: Colin Adair
Third: Juan Venegas

Residential Wiring

First: Sean Lynam
Second: Francisco Armendariz
Third: Andy Adams

Fire Fighting

Second: Alec Langton

Advertising Design

First: Patrick Griffin
Second: Elise Lara
Third: Scotty Cummings

Aesthetics

First: Ashlee Edens
Second: Shaina Molinuaux

Culinary students whip up dinner, pastries for SkillsUSA contest

EVIT is hosting the SkillsUSA Region 3 Conference on Saturday. About 300 students from the area will compete in a variety of career and technical education areas, including video productions, masonry, criminal justice, automotive, cosmetology, and advertising design. More than 200 of those students are from EVIT!

All the students competing in the culinary contests are from EVIT, so they decided to hold their event a day early.


Culinary students had to demonstrate their knife skills and cook a chicken vegetable soup, a sauteed chicken breast and buttermilk biscuits.


Commercial Baking students baked a variety of treats: bread, rolls, danishes, coffee cakes, tarts, cookies and biscuits.


And other students competed in a restaurant management competition in which they memorized a menu and set, hosted, served and bussed tables, all while focusing on customer service.

The top students will go on to compete in the SkillsUSA Arizona Championships in April.