Downey High School Competes at the SkillsUSA State Competition
In anticipation of the SkillsUSA State Conference taking place in Ontario, California from April 19 through April 22, Leslie Paniagua, 12, prepares to compete on the state level in Ms. Cordova’s photography section. “Basically, the photography is a bit more competitive just because they give you a theme and you have to go out and take it,” Paniagua said. “You have to Photoshop, and then you actually have an interview one-on-one with the judge.”
April 30, 2018
From Thursday, Apr. 19 to Sunday, Apr. 22, high school students throughout California participated in the annual SkillsUSA State Competition held in the Ontario Convention Center. Among the schools that participated in the competition is Downey High School, which sent out students from various vocations to compete in prompt-based events that demonstrate mastery in their field.
50+ competitions took place over the course of three days ranging from a variety of technical occupations (Television Production, Photography, Computer Programming, Engineering Technology/Design) to medical fields (Dental Assisting, Health Knowledge Bowl, Occupational Health and Safety). Each category differs, with some contests testing the competitors’ dexterity and others testing their ability to work under time constraints.
The State competition adds more pressure than Regionals for students since only the groups that place first in the conference move on to Nationals. For Charlize Duron, 11, the pressure brought upon by state does not phase her.
“I would say that they’re both difficult but the standards are a lot higher at the state competition,” Duron stated. “At state, to make it to the next round, you have to receive first place in order to go to Nationals so that does put a level of pressure as opposed to the regional competition.”
Duron is one in a group of four sports medicine students that competed in the Health Knowledge Bowl at the State conference. Their task involved their ability to answer questions on different categories spanning human anatomy to ethics and legality. To prepare for their task, Duron and her team reviewed a large amount of information in order to answer with accuracy and speed.
“So for my category [Health Knowledge Bowl], we have to answer questions that touch fields such as human anatomy, certain illnesses, medical legality, and code of conduct,” Duron said. “We typically are competing against teams from our school and other schools as well. And well we all have similar roles on the team – to study and know the material well enough to answer all the questions.”
Transitioning to a technical field, another competition that happened during the weekend was for photography. At the conference, photography students were given a central theme to serve as the focus for their photos. Afterwords, students had to photoshop, process, and submit two pictures (11×14 or 16×20) to be judged.
Coming from Mrs. Cordova’s advanced photography class, Leslie Paniagua, 12, felt confident in her ability to perform well at the competition due to her background.
“I started photography actually last year [2016-2017 school year] – I was in Photo 1 and ended up really enjoying it and loving it and kinda expressing myself through pictures and now I’m in advanced this year,” Paniagua stated. “I’m more excited than nervous for sure; I’m looking forward to it especially because of the experience, and it’s really exciting.”
Paniagua earned gold at the conference and is set to compete at the National competition in Kentucky later this year.
The senior Quiz Bowl team was another group that competed in Ontario. After last year’s Quiz Bowl team earned gold and competed at Nationals, this year’s team led by seniors Dylan Ly and Emiliano Salomon felt it was incumbent on them to achieve the same feat. A member of the team, Hector Palma, 12, describes their approach to ensuring a first place win.
“We collectively came together to make this document [for review] and make sure we have all the current events down,” Palma said. “I guess I am in charge of current events.”
Teams competing in Quiz Bowl were required to answer a total of 100 questions for both the preliminary round and final round. In the end, Downey High School’s team won gold.
With the State competition now finished, Downey High school students prepare for Nationals set to take place in Kentucky from June 25 to June 29. For more information on SkillsUSA visit their website or see Mrs. Vadgama in Z-3.
Throughout our lives, we meet people who leave a lasting impact. They arrive at an unexpected time, but it is always when you are in need of their wisdom.
Oscar Flores is one of the kindest and most talented individuals that I have ever met. His ability to lace emotion and sincerity within every single one of his articles never fails to amaze me. Oscar is not afraid to take risks, in both his writing pieces and in real life. He faces all the obstacles thrown his way with perseverance and a positive outlook, qualities that are rare to find within many people.
I feel very grateful to have a person like Oscar in my life. Having him as a best friend is one of the greatest things to happen to me. Oscar has helped me through many difficult trials in my senior year and I can’t thank him enough for it.
-Nathalie Sibal
When I first met Jaz I was surprised at how lovable she is. This girl who is the current Editor in Chief for newspaper, who is a quiz bowl state champion, and the president of the writing center, put so much on her shoulders and will make you surprised at how well she handles everything that gets thrown at her. Jasmine Fernandez is the girl who makes you want to live her life for even a second, adored by all who meet her and baffled by how many faculty members she has befriended; to the point where she even attended board meetings.
She is the silly person everyone wants to be friends with, I mean if you saw someone sitting in a Panera for eight hours wouldn’t you have the urge to go speak to this mindless girl?
Many people call her ‘mom’ seeing how she cares for all of her friends, and honestly everyone who she meets. Instead of calling her my mom I would prefer to call her my comrade, seeing how we both go through the same struggles in life, dealing with the drawbacks of high school and life.
Rather than letting the torments get to her and slow down her path to Cornell Jasmine confidently thrives on through high school, as she states, “I am so grateful for the opportunities i’ve had and lessons i’ve learned in those gates but i’m also really excited to move onto the next”. Having the ability to push obstacles out of her way to focus on what actually deserves her attention, causes many around her to envy her, and secretly hate her, but that is besides the point.
-Vanessa Carillo
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