COVENTRY \u2014 Coventry Regional Career and Technical Center nabbed more medals than ever before during this year\u2019s SkillsUSA Rhode Island Championships, with 29 students awarded medals in gold, silver or bronze after demonstrating expertise in competitions that invited them to showcase their varied abilities.<\/p>\n
In June, 11 gold medalists from Coventry will head to Atlanta, Georgia to compete against their counterparts from across the country in the National Leadership and Skills Conference.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For junior Ayana DeSimone and the other two members of her crime scene investigation team, it was hardly believable when they were announced as gold medalists during an awards ceremony last month.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was definitely unexpected,\u201d DeSimone said. \u201cWe were genuinely surprised and very excited, because it\u2019s amazing to be given the opportunity to go as far as Georgia to compete in nationals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n DeSimone worked alongside Lily Chace and Olivia Terra. The team practiced as often as it could, Chace said, even coming together during school vacation to run through various scenarios.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Still, Chace admitted, they didn\u2019t expect to win.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe three of us sat down and were like, \u2018we\u2019ve done our best, we\u2019ve put in work, but we just want to have fun and if we lose then we did our best and that\u2019s OK,\u2019\u201d she said, recalling meeting with her teammates the day before they were to compete.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When it was announced that they\u2019d won, she added, their \u201cjaws dropped.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Kayla Kennedy, a criminal justice student, was similarly surprised to learn she\u2019d made it to nationals. Kennedy earned her gold medal in a job skills demo competition, having chosen to demonstrate her crime scene photography skills. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Kennedy was so sure she wasn’t going to win, in fact,\u00a0<\/span>that she skipped the awards ceremony.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, there\u2019s no way I\u2019m winning anything,\u201d she said. \u201cCome to find out I won gold.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In the T-shirt design competition, senior Alexis Shylanski also earned a gold medal for her design featuring waves and a lighthouse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Competitors are tasked each year with creating a design that represents Rhode Island, Shylanski explained. They can either resubmit a design from a previous year, she said, or create an entirely new one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always better to do a fresh start, in my opinion,\u201d said Shylanski, who came in sixth place for her design in last year\u2019s competition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Shylanski, who will present the same design at the national competition, was thrilled to learn that this year her design took first in the state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really important to always compete again if you have the opportunity,\u201d she said. \u201cI took what I learned from the sixth place and brought it to the first place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yu Pan, who earned gold in advertising design, also applied what she\u2019d learned in previous competitions in showcasing her advertisement for the Community College of Rhode Island\u2019s Rhode Island Promise program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Pan competed last year, so going into this year\u2019s competition she had a better understanding of the process. Pan prepared by conducting extra online research, she said, and watched videos of poster critiques so that she could impress the judges with her own.<\/span><\/p>\n Sarah Correia, Kyle Fraser and Emma Levesque took home gold medals, as well, this time in a competition that Coventry had never entered before this year. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt feels good,\u201d Correia, a junior, said of earning gold in engineering design technology. \u201cWe had very limited time, so we were happy with what we were able to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Correia\u2019s team learned what the competition entailed only two days beforehand, she said, but in just five hours were able to build a robot that could pick up items and place them into a basket. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In medical math, a competition that included determining medication dosages, sophomore Marisa Catanzaro also won gold.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And taking gold in the nurse assisting competition was Haley Hug, a senior who joined the health careers program at the career and tech center in hopes that it would help prepare her for a career as a paramedic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In addition to its gold medalists, Coventry also saw 11 of its 84 competitors awarded silver medals while seven earned bronze.<\/span><\/p>\n Earning silver SkillsUSA medals this year were Blake Studley in advertising design; Ronin Carderelli and Jayden Carnevale in biotechnology; Noah Aldana and Jonathan Leach in cybersecurity; Zoey Fontaine in early childhood studies; Carlton Burgess, Elizabeth Curran and Jean Staubley in engineering design technology; Aidan Simao in job interview; and Abigail Thibodeau in nurse assisting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This was the first year that Coventry had entered the biotech competition, currently run only at the state level. The teams were challenged with running gel electrophoresis, a method used to separate strands of DNA, Carnevale said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou use it to find similarities between different people\u2019s DNA,\u201d the high school senior explained. \u201cIt can be used for crime scenes and things like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This being the first time that the school had competed, Carnevale said that he and Carderelli were unsure what to expect.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMe and my partner were just kind of hoping to have fun and get a good experience out of it, because it\u2019s something we both want to do later on in life,\u201d said Carnevale, who after starting as a ninth grader in the welding program enrolled in a biotech class and now plans to pursue a master\u2019s degree in the field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t really expecting to get a medal,\u201d Carnevale continued, \u201cwe were just happy to be there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And in the end, he and Carderelli earned the second spot out of 15 teams from across Rhode Island.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Simao\u2019s silver medal, meanwhile, came from his performance in the job interview competition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A sophomore at the high school, Simao was asked a series of interview questions, like: what\u2019s a book you\u2019ve read recently that you found impactful? Simao wasn\u2019t expecting that question, he said, nor was he expecting it when the judges \u2014 a group of human resources professionals \u2014 requested that he ask them a question.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI asked them what they look for in interviews, what they see as red flags, what are green flags,\u201d he recalled, adding that he credits his success in the competition partly to remaining relaxed and making eye contact.<\/span><\/p>\n Simao has been chosen to serve next year as a state officer for SkillsUSA, a role currently filled by Studley.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCareer and technical education is closing the skills gap,\u201d said Studley, a junior at Coventry High School. \u201cIt\u2019s getting all of us ready for the workforce \u2014 leaving the Career and Tech Center, I\u2019m going to be going into college with skills that some other students won\u2019t have going into college.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n For Adrian Lunardelli, a senior who works as a certified nursing assistant in a nursing home, his hope is that the experiences he’s had in high school will help in pursuing a career as a nurse.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI like to help people,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing a CNA, I can walk out of my job knowing that I was able to help somebody who wasn\u2019t able to help themselves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Lunardelli earned a bronze medal in first aid and CPR. He said that during the competition, he thought back to his actions in real situations that required him to use his first aid skills.<\/span><\/p>\n For junior Lucy Colby, whose efforts in the commercial baking competition earned her a bronze medal, the experience of competing against other talented bakers at Johnson & Wales University may have convinced her to pursue culinary beyond high school.<\/span><\/p>\n This is only Colby\u2019s first year in the career and tech center\u2019s culinary arts program. Since entering high school she\u2019s tried her hand at several different programs, from graphics to education studies to culinary arts, and had been thinking of trying something else in her senior year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNow I think I\u2019m going to keep going with [culinary] because it was just a really great experience,\u201d said Colby, who was tasked with decorating a cake and baking braided bread loaves, chocolate cookies and jalape\u00f1o corn muffins for the competition. \u201cI want to stay committed to figure out where I want to go with it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Ashley Klingberg, a senior, also earned a bronze medal. This one in criminal justice, the competing students had to respond to each of four scenarios: a motor vehicle stop, a domestic violence call, a 911 hangup and a suspicious person.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou have to respond to those accordingly,\u201d said Klingberg, who after winning first in the state competition last year earned second at nationals, held virtually.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Other bronze medalists were Grace Petrarca and Westin Palumbo, who took third in biotechnology; Lila Maiato, who won bronze in cosmetology; and Luke Lapham, whose welding skills earned him third place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Beyond the medals taken home, one Coventry student had his design selected for a statewide SkillsUSA pin that was worn by competitors and judges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI thought it would be a good idea to keep it simple,\u201d Noah Gaudreau said of his winning design, which depicted the SkillsUSA logo and an anchor surrounded by a circle wave.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With more students than ever before planning to attend the national SkillsUSA championship competitions, fundraising efforts are now underway.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe more money we raise, the less we have to ask from the students,\u201d said Earl Read, a criminal justice teacher at Coventry\u2019s career and tech center and the local SkillsUSA chapter advisor, who estimates it could cost up to $30,000 for everyone to make the week-long trip to Atlanta.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe kids have a blast,\u201d Read added of the national event, \u201cand they meet people from all over the country.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While he celebrates Coventry\u2019s 29 medalists, Read has his own accomplishment to celebrate, too: he was just named advisor of the year by SkillsUSA Rhode Island.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI love Skills,\u201d Read said. \u201cI\u2019ve been impressed with this since day one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n A Bingo night fundraiser, to be held sometime in May, will feature food prepared by the culinary students, various games set up in the courtyard and prizes for winners. Plans for a pancake breakfast are also in the works.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe need people from the community \u2014 parents, kids \u2014 to come down here and have fun to help everybody go to nationals and represent Coventry,\u201d said Will Chace, a sophomore and vice president of the local SkillsUSA chapter executive board.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And beyond the national competitions, Simao said his goal as he steps into his state officer role is to help SkillsUSA expand into more schools \u2014 in Coventry, Alan Shawn Feinstein Middle School has recently started its own SkillsUSA program.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been the advisor for four years, and I\u2019m very impressed,\u201d Read said of Coventry’s SkillsUSA chapter and the talent of the students involved. \u201cIt\u2019s only going to get bigger.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Those who would like to donate toward the trip to nationals or who wish to sponsor a student can call Lori Ferguson, director of the Regional Career and Technical Center at Coventry High School, at (401) 822-9400 ext. 283.<\/span><\/p>\n