Geary students and their families gathered Tuesday, May 4, in the Field House for a celebration of SkillsUSA members and their achievements over the past two years.
The banquet included an awards presentation for Geary students and a “signing day” ceremony for seniors who’ve decided what career path or further education they’ll pursue after graduation. Students also learned how they fared in statewide SkillsUSA competitions this spring, with several students earning first-place honors and a berth to the national competition.
SkillsUSA is a nonprofit educational association that encourages college, high school and middle school students to learn a trade and enter the technical or skilled service industries. Students compete in a wide variety of related contests including customer service, entrepreneurship, job interview, nurse assisting, photography, prepared speech, welding and much more.
Because the SkillsUSA awards were not held last year, the banquet honored those winners as well as winners from the 2020-2021 school year.
The top honors of the evening were given to the school’s SkillsUSA Members of the Year. Elliott Harrall and Jace Nelson won the middle school Members of the Year for 2019-2020; for the current school year, the middle school winners were Hollis Harrall and Donnie Spottedcorn.
The high school Members of the Year were Michael Blackcrow and Jamie Yellowfish (2019-2020); and Lanson Pratt and Savannah Paukei (2020-2021).
The Geary SkillsUSA chapter had 17 students compete at the state-level competition this year. Competitions were not held in person due to COVID-19, but rather online.
Tucker Hicks, Tony Davidson and Daphne Bates took first place in the Occupational Health & Safety competition, and will be moving on to Nationals. “They’ll have about a month to tweak and make any kind of adjustments to their competition,” explained Cody McPherson, the Geary SkillsUSA advisor.
Connor Bernhardt, Spencer Davidson and Aubrey Lawson won first place at State as the Outstanding Chapter Team. Hicks took first in Customer Service, Hollis Harrall won first in the middle school division of Job Skill Demonstration (A), and Spottedcorn won Job Skill Demonstration (O).
At the end of the ceremony, nine seniors assembled on the Field House stage to sign a letter of commitment to move forward with a skilled trade. The “signing day” ceremony is commonly used by high school athletes who announce what college they’ll be attending and playing for.
Hicks will attend college and study to become a professional pilot; Tony Davidson will attend the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute and hopes to become a Harley-Davidson mechanic; Blackcrow will study to become an aircraft mechanic; Izzy Yellowfish will attend college to become a teacher and coach; Art Lorenz wants to become a software engineer; Paukei will study as a professional truck driver; Kelsey Stanley and Kynsey Albiston will study to become a nurse; and Serena Williams will study to become a cosmetologist.
The seniors signed their letters of intent, surrounded by family, while the crowd cheered them on.
The ceremony marked the end of a strange but successful year for Geary’s SkillsUSA chapter. The chapter recently announced that Elliott Harrall and Pratt have both been named SkillsUSA Oklahoma Secondary State Officers for the 2021-2022 school year. It is the first time since 1969 that Geary has had a CTSO state officer; there are only 10 statewide officer positions.
The chapter also announced that both the middle school and high schools earned “Gold” honors in the SkillsUSA Chapter Excellence Program for 2021. Geary’s is the first middle school in Oklahoma to earn the honor, the chapter said on Facebook.