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Leadership Workshop Helps Career and Tech Ed Students Develop Skills

The SkillsUSA senior class officers at the Orleans Career and Technical Education Center spent several days attending a fall leadership conference in Liverpool, N.Y.  The six officers and their advisor, Kara Kirk, participated in an intense two-day training where they met other SkillsUSA officers from New York State. SkillsUSA is a national organization for students in trade, industrial and technical education.  The purpose of the training is for officers to learn more about parliamentary procedure, their duties, problem solving, teamwork and social interactions.

Vice President Aaron Wysochanski says he met people from all over.  “They split our group up to force us to work with different people.  It was a great time and we did a lot of team building activities.  I walked away making a bunch of new friends.”  Savannah King, who is the Parliamentarian at the school, says initially she was out of her comfort zone with the way the conference was structured.  “I didn’t know anyone in my group, but after this experience we communicate all the time.  “IvyMarie Gilbert is the reporter for the officers.  “The teambuilding was great and it was very beneficial to work on speaking in front of large groups.  It really helped to shape us as leaders.   It also bonded our officers even closer.  We really got to know one another and had a lot of laughs.”  President Joshua Bedford said the team was especially proud that they all received their statesmen awards.  “We had to take a test and do an oral presentation to achieve it.” 

Aaron says the officers could not wait to share what they had learned.  “When we got back to the Orleans center we showed the junior SkillsUSA members the skills we developed and ran some workshops of our own.  The reaction from the other students astounded the team.  “I was very proud of how many of them wanted to be leaders when we got done with our mini fall leadership,” said Savannah.  “This is what the Fall Leadership Conference is all about,” says Mrs. Kirk.  “It gives the officers and the advisors a chance to share ideas and learn new leadership skills.  It was a great experience for all of us and I was very proud of our officers on how they conducted themselves and what they shared with their fellow SkillsUSA members.”   

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