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Press Release
Three CCOC Students Named Best in the State by SkillsUSA
Three Central County Occupational Center students won Gold medals and were named best in the state in the field of Air Conditioning/Refrigeration, Collision Repair, and Diesel at the 40th annual SkillsUSA state competition held April 19 to 22 in Riverside, California.
The trio, which netted nearly $60,000 in scholarships, are: CCOC Air Conditioning student and Oak Grove High School junior, Jeff Kershaw, who won a $10,000 scholarship to WyoTech; CCOC Truck Mechanics student and Leigh High School junior, Chris Luck, earned a $21,000 scholarship to WyoTech; and Neal Henderson, CCOC Auto Body Repair student and Leigh High School junior won his choice of two scholarships $25,000 to WyoTech or $29,000 to Universal Technical Institute (UTI).
All three students will go on to represent CCOC at the SkillsUSA National competition in Kansas City June 26-29.
Kershaw said the win is life-changing as he had planned to go straight into his trade upon graduation, but now that he has won a scholarship, he will attend college.
A total of 18 students from CCOC competed in hands-on and demonstration competitions in the fields of Air Conditioning/Refrigeration, Cad Drafting, Collision Repair, Diesel, Precision Machine, and Air Conditioning Job Skill Demonstration.
"CCOC's students really showed what they have learned and that they know the skills of their trade," Air Conditioning instructor and SkillsUSA advisor John Tawney, said. "They did really well with half of those who competed bringing back medals."
SkillsUSA is a national organization for students in trade, technical, industrial and health occupation career education fields. Annual competitions are held to encourage students to challenge themselves within their chosen technical careers.
Others who took home medals from the state competition include Silver (2nd place) winners Rene Enriquez, from James Lick High School, for Collision Repair, and David Gupton, from Independence High School, for Air Conditioning/Refrigeration. Bronze (3rd place) winners include Francisco Palma, from Lincoln Plus, for Air Conditioning/Refrigeration; Anthony Raczynski, from Evergreen Valley High School, for Precision Machining; and Dwight Wheeler, from Capitol High School, for Diesel.
Participant awardees include Jamie Wancewicz from Branham High School, for Collision Repair; Andrew Hovorka, from Branham High School, for Air Conditioning/Refrigeration; Kristine Thach from Evergreen Valley High School for Cad Drafting; Steven Rodriguez from Evergreen Valley High School for Precision Machining; Anthony Harrington, from Foothill High School, for Job Skill Demonstration; Analicia Hicks-Taylor, from Gunderson High School for Diesel; Adeel Mahmood, from Piedmont Hills High School for Air Conditioning/Refrigeration; and Kyle Sisco, from Santa Teresa High School for Cad Drafting.
CCOC-a unit of MetroED--provides career-technical education for high school students from six districts: Campbell Union High School District, East Side Union High School District, Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District, Milpitas Unified School District, San Jose Unified School District, and Santa Clara Unified School District. Students attend CCOC for half of their school day and the other half they attend their home high school.
MetroED is the largest career-oriented educational organization in Santa Clara County, comprised of high school and adult career technical, academic and community programs.
MetroED annually provides more than 30,000 diverse students with the skills to help them be productive, income-earning and tax-paying contributors to Silicon Valley.
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