Aims Community College hosted a SkillsUSA regional competition on Feb. 2 at the Automotive & Technology Center on its Windsor, CO, campus. Nineteen students from Aims and Morgan Community College participated in this competition.
Professionals from Denver, Cheyenne, WY, and northern Colorado were on hand to judge the students’ work and proficiency in various aspects of automotive refinishing technology.
“The judges are people out in the shops every day,” said Mike Hanscome, an Aims automotive instructor and advisor for the SkillsUSA team at Aims.
In addition to getting feedback from industry pros, networking with potential employers is “probably the biggest thing that the students get out of it,” Hanscome said.
SkillsUSA is also beneficial to instructors to see how students perform under pressure, since participants must complete each task in one hour or less.
“Being able to put them in this situation is about the closest that we can do stress level-wise other than putting them in a shop,” Hanscome said. “So it shows us as far as instructors, what they retained as far as information, how well they put that retention to work and how well they critically think their way through a stressful situation.”
The top finishers in each category will compete in the Colorado State Leadership and Skills Conference, April 3-5 in Pueblo, CO. Winners of the statewide contest move to the national competition that will be held June 19-23 in Atlanta.
The Aims students moving on to state include:
Post-Secondary Refinishing
- First place: Kayleigh Kerr
- Second place: Danielle Wilson
Secondary Refinishing
- First place: Jesus Conejo
Post-Secondary Damage Appraisal
- First place: Jesse Manuel
Secondary Damage Appraisal
- First place: Mario Saenz
Post-Secondary Collision Repair
- First place: Darion Cordova
Source: Aims Community College
