Darby school has successfully been part of SkillsUSA for three years so far and has quite a few achievements to showcase! Along with developing their professionalism and self-esteem, Darby students have earned twelve gold, eight silver, and three bronze medals at State last year! Moreover, from all schools in Montana, Darby has always been able to send the most students to Nationals.
SkillsUSA is a program that promotes and offers students a chance to learn trade skills. It was founded in 1965 in Nashville, Tennessee and expands across the US, involving around 4,263 schools. It opens up new pathways and, according to the SkillsUSA organization, “empowers students to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders and responsible community members.”
Learning trade skills is especially important in our society right now, as the US currently experiences a lack of workers in the skilled trades. In total SkillsUSA offers 16 career clusters, such as marketing, education and training, technology and communications, and leadership categories. Those then offer 79 career pathways in total; they delve into aspects like welding, first aid response, architectural drafting, entrepreneurship, and digital cinema production. All these different aspects are designed to help students become successful in their future careers and explore their vocations.
This year, SkillsUSA leaders Bubba Townsend and Courtney Bennett are hoping for another promising season. “We have about 30 students participating from the high school only and about twenty more from junior high,” Bennett tells me in an interview. She also said ”we hope to grow even bigger and send more kids to Nationals!”
Gus and his team (from left to right: Gus, McCoy and Lilly) presenting their Chapter Display at Nationals
Students at Nationals in Atlanta, Georgia (2024)
When talking to Gus Harrell, who participated in SkillsUSA last year, he said that “SkillsUSA definitely showed me the power of teamwork and the skills to get to the next level.” He was one of 12 students able to go to Nationals in Atlanta. Gus and his team won gold at State for their Chapter Display, which was about presenting a SkillsUSA branch and its related community service. When asked about his experience in Atlanta, he mentioned “I think presenting my project helped improve my public speaking and getting to see Atlanta and being at Nationals was just really fun overall.” With this being said, we can all hope that our SkillsUSA team will gain even more participants and we wish them the best of luck this year with success all the way to Nationals!
Article written by Nayla Schmied, Darby student