Thursday, March 14, 2013
Tr jan Times
News M IL
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I L A NI H I G H
40 YEA RS
FCCLA triumphs, all 16 students place in categories Culinary Arts: Gold - Seniors Casie Hodges, Lindsey Hisamoto and Malina Reyes Chapter Service Project Manual: Gold - Seniors Shelby Nakamura and Skye Oyamot Life Event Planning: Gold - Seniors Alana, Bonsilao, Justine Loughney and Reyna Yacapin Chapter Showcase Manual: Silver - Seniors Alisha Miyashiro, Brittney Yoshimura and Brooke Yoshimura Interpersonal Communications: Silver - Seniors Kailee Goya, Tayla Yogi and Bradley Yoshida Knife Cutting: Red Ribbon - Sophomore Sydney Ro and Senior Sabrina Milian-Gutierrez
By Ireland Castillo i.castillo@trojantimes.org
All 16 Family Career Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) members triumphed in this year’s Career and Technical Student Organization competition, which was held on Feb. 20 and 21 at the Hawaii Convention Center. “I’m very proud because we worked, they worked really hard,” expressed FCCLA adviser Karla Deguchi. This year FCCLA placed in six categories: Culinary Arts, Chapter Showcase Manual, Chapter Service Project Manual, Life Event Planning, Interpersonal Communications and Knife Cutting. The Culinary Arts and Chapter Service Project Manual teams received the highest scores in their categories. As a result, the two teams have the opportunity to advance on to nationals. Second in state culinary gold medalist Senior Lindsey Hisamoto expressed, “(Nationals) sounds like it would be a great experience.” On Feb. 20, FCCLA competed first, so feelings
Photo courtesy of FCCLA adviser Karla Deguchi
All 16 MHS FCCLA members celebrated over their placements in this year’s CTSO competition. of anxiety had arisen as groups awaited their assignments. “I was really nervous cause I’ve never done this before (since) I had just started this year,” explained culinary red ribbon receiver Sophomore Sydney Ro. In the competitions, each group is given time to organize goals. “We have time to set up our boards and whatever and stuff,” said Ro. First in state culinary gold medalist Senior Casie Hodges added, “(We organized) a drawing of the plating and (took the time) to gather all our equipment.” As a result, FCCLA
placed due to their organization and creativity within their competitions. “The judges gave us really good feedback about (how) we stood out cause the things that we did,” said Hisamoto. The success of the FCCLA groups is due to the dedication and effort of all its members. “(Each group) came in on their own, they worked really hard on their projects. There was a lot of practice involved,” explained Deguchi. Overall, teams advancing to the national competition will be faced with greater challenges against other state
competitors. Nationals will be held from July 7 to 12 in Nashville, Tenn. Scan for video coverage of the Leeward Community College Scholarship Brunch.
17 students place top three at SkillsUSA conference
Photo courtesy of SkillsUSA adviser Todd Yoshizawa
For the students, this conference was unique in that it gave them a chance to show off their talents in areas they usually wouldn’t. By Kiana Caranto k.caranto@trojantimes.org
MHS was represented strongly at the SkillsUSA State Conference held at the Hawaii Convention Center on Feb. 20 and 21. A total of 17 students placed top three in categories ranging from Mobile Robotics to Promotional Bulletin Board, and five of them will be moving on to the national competition. “Our kids did very well. Even the students that didn’t place, they performed very admirably and they represented (MHS) very
well. Myself and all the advisers are very happy with the results,” stated SkillsUSA adviser Tom Falenofoa. SkillsUSA is an organization that allows students involved in a career or technical education program to showcase their capabilities in their corresponding categories. This year’s conference was beneficial to the students in that it gave them a chance to realize their potential. “It really kind of brings out the best in students because it gives them an opportunity to demonstrate what it is that they know,” said Falenofoa,
“Seeing students who normally don’t get a chance to showcase their abilities get a chance to shine.” Many of the students that placed this year had competed in past years, one of them being SkillsUSA State President Senior Gabrielle Reznik, who placed first in the Job Interview category. Students in this category were required to complete tasks such as accurately filling out job applications and answering a series of questions. “I was happy. I wasn’t so much surprised because I mean, I knew I worked hard,” said Reznik, who also took second place in the same category at last year’s conference. For others such as MHS’ SkillsUSA President Junior Clayton Dailey, this competition posed a bigger challenge. Dailey was part of the team that placed first in the Mobile Robotics category, in which students were required to build a robot to accomplish a specific task along with putting together a PowerPoint explaining their thought processes. “It was
Promotional Bulletin Board: Silver - Sophomores Lydia Strickland, Cassie Morris, Vivian Fang and Junior Hina Kimura Bronze - Freshman Vanessa Roybal Prepared Speech: Silver - Junior Leyna Tamaye Architectural Drafting: Bronze - Senior Richie Chio Statesman Award: Seniors Yvonne Keawe, Greg Watanabe and Freshman Ursula Stott challenging because it’s hard to communicate your ideas and why you did certain things to other people,” explained Dailey, “We were very excited and surprised because we really thought that we weren’t going to win.” This hard work will carry on to nationals, in which five first-placing MHS students will be participating. Some have
Job Interview: Gold - Senior Gabrielle Reznik Silver - Senior Wade Yoshida Internetworking: Gold - Senior Brayton Acoba Silver - Senior Chase Yasunaga Bronze - Senior Kara Nitta Mobile Robotics: Gold - Juniors Clayton Dailey and Glenn Galvizo Jr. Bronze - Seniors Ryan Taketa and Randall Chan Related Technical Math: Gold - Senior Stephen Mau already started to prepare and think specifically about what they need to improve on. “We definitely need to work on our presentations and our design process. That was the weakest part of our competition, where we scored lowest,” said Dailey. Both the students and advisers are prepared to work harder than ever and hope to do well at the national competition.