The future skilled workforce is ready to take on the world – and it all started at the Career And Technology Education Centers of Licking County.
Three shared seniors from Licking Heights High School and C-TEC will be attending the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta, Georgia in June. These students earned a gold medal in the State SkillsUSA competition and will now compete against more than 6,000 state champions from across the country.
According to their website, “SkillsUSA is the #1 workforce development organization for students. We empower students to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders and responsible community members.” The organization hosts regional, state and national competitions where students pursuing career and technical education demonstrate their skills in a supportive, competitive environment.
The three students completed the electronic and computer technology program at C-TEC.
Roshika Chapagai will compete in the Prepared Speech competition, where she will have to deliver a five- to seven-minute detailed speech on a topic assigned by the jury. Her passion is business management and analysis, so Chapagai enjoys the opportunity to develop her confidence and her public speaking and presentation skills.
In the fall, Chapagai will attend Columbus State Community College to continue her studies in business management, administration and entrepreneurship. She plans to complete her bachelor’s degree in business analytics and eventually earn a master’s degree.
“C-TEC gave me many opportunities to present myself in a more confident way. It also pushed me to do things outside my comfort zone and enjoy moments with my teammates,” she said. “I built great relationships with my teachers and developed my knowledge about the outside world and the workforce.”
Emily McCord will compete in the Cybersecurity competition alongside teammate Amino Jama. The two excelled in the local competition, thanks to their skills in configuration setup and password management. For the state competition, McCord and Jama studied network security, cyberattacks and account hardening. McCord’s specialty is navigation and password and account management in Linux.
McCord said her favorite part of attending C-TEC is spending half her day in the lab with her friends. After graduation, she will attend Ohio State University for computer science and engineering. She plans to become a cloud security engineer.
“SkillsUSA is related to my program because it covers one of my specializations, computer strengthening, and fits my future career goal,” McCord said. “The SkillsUSA Cybersecurity competition was a preview of my future career.”
Jama will compete with McCord in the Cybersecurity competition. Her specialty is password cracking with John the Ripper software and she earned her CompTIA A+ certification during her junior year at C-TEC. Security is an important part of her studies.
Jama’s favorite part of attending C-TEC is the hands-on learning opportunities and the freedom she has to select courses based on her unique interests. She will earn a degree in computer science and engineering from The Ohio State University in the fall. Her goal is to work in the field of cybersecurity and become a penetration tester.
“C-TEC helped me understand what I wanted to pursue for my future,” she said. “Now I have discovered what I want to do in life. C-TEC also prepares you for the professional field. In my first year we had repeated practice interviews with our teachers and volunteers who came in. Even our final exams had an interview part.”
Information submitted by Licking Heights Local Schools.
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Licking Heights seniors advance to national technical skills competition
