Ten Bossier Parish Community College students will be competing at the national SkillsUSA competition this summer after winning gold medals at the state level.

BPCC won gold in five categories; silver in four categories; and bronze in three categories. In total, 17 students won awards in various categories.

The 2024 SkillsUSA State Competition was held at Central Louisiana Technical Community College’s Downtown Alexandria campus April 15-17. During the state competition, career and technical education students worked against the clock and each other, proving their expertise in occupations such as electronics, computer-aided drafting, precision machining, medical assisting and culinary arts.

All contests are run by SkillsUSA with the help of industry, trade associations and labor organizations, testing competencies set by industry. In addition, leadership contestants demonstrated their skills, which included extemporaneous speaking and conducting meetings using parliamentary procedure. Top student winners received gold, silver and bronze medallions. Many also received prizes such as tools of their trade and scholarships to further their careers and education.

Those winning gold medals advance to the National Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta, GA on June 24-28.

Below is the list of BPCC’s medalists from the State SkillsUSA Competition:

Gold Medalists:

• Digital Cinema Production – Timothy Carter
• Digital Cinema Production – Matthew Fultz
• Extemporaneous Speaking – Krista Johnson
• Job Interview – Alana McCoy
• Medical Terminology – Jolene Valle
• Video News Production – Aaron Calhoun
• Video News Production – Sarah Foster
• Video News Production – De’Franklin Pratt
• Video News Production – JaCayla Smith

Silver Medalists:

• Culinary Arts – Primitivo Delgado
• Digital Cinema Production – Aiyana Dupree
• Digital Cinema Production – Ty Hardiman
• State Pin Design – Kaitlyn Barnett
• Photography – Bailey Green

Bronze Medalists:

• Photography – Kaitlin Dugdale
• State T-shirt Design – Kaitlyn Barnett
• TV/Video Production – Gregory Hicks
• TV/Video Production – Joshua Valdez

Representing BPCC at the national competition will be Timothy Carter, Matthew Fultz, Krista Johnson, Alana McCoy, Jolene Valle, Aaron Calhoun, Sarah Foster, De’Franklin Pratt, JaCayla Smith, Kaitlyn Barnett, Taryn Lambert (State Vice President), and Alyssa Alexander (State Historian/Reporter).

BPCC’s SkillsUSA chapter had the second largest membership representation at the state competition and was recognized as a Quality Chapter as part of the SkillsUSA Chapter Excellence Program.

"Competitions like this provide unique incentive for students to further refine their skills outside of the classroom environment and then to measure their development against other high performing students,” says Jim Boyter, BPCC’s SkillsUSA chapter advisor. “The diverse group representing BPCC this year will demonstrate the world-class training that our students receive."