Pictured above from left to right are Perla Rivera a junior from Health Technology, Rinaldo Izzo a senior from Health Technology and Stephanie Plateroti a senior in Graphics.  The students competed in the Skills USA competition on Friday March 27, 2009 against all the other technical high schools in the state.

Perla, a junior, won first place in the Nursing Assistant competition. Perla had to perfom tasks such as taking vital signs, range of motion testing on a patient, transferring patients from wheelchairs to a bed, and basic care. Perla competed last year but was not as nervous this time. She felt better prepared as a junior because the technology goes out to nursing homes and performs these types of tasks daily. Her favorite part of the competition day was the dance and awards ceremony where all the participants can relax act crazy and have some fun! She is looking forward to the Kansas City trip and hopes to perform well to bring home a trophy.

A senior in Health Technology, Rinaldo chose to compete in the Technical Math competition in March. The math skills test was not very difficult he stated but more annoying than anything. It was a two hour 50 question test that got him to the podium for first place. He said that the test was stressful but it was very gratifying to out perform all of the other participants who seemed to be more confident than himself. Rinaldo also admitted that his heart was racing at the awards ceremony and was a bit sweaty too! The dance and the awards ceremony was too his favorite part of the day and said it was nice to see everyone let their guards down. He is proud to be going to Kansas City to represent Connecticut at the National conference.

Stephanie Plateroti,a senior, placed first in the graphics competition.  It was like a day in shop she said going through the steps in production, so she felt very well prepared to win. A competitor at heart she had a lot of fun and all the students from the other technical high schools were easy to get along with, which made it an awesome day. The best part for her was being able to unwind with her competitors and other Wilcox students. She can not wait to compete in Kansas City and feels that win or lose all of this has been a great and exciting experience.

Other winners from the competition are listed below and were also awarded scholarships and recognition. Congratulations to all!!

2nd Place:     Angelica Irizzary-Graphics

                         Stephanie Lochowski-Electronics

3rd Place:     Jeremy Guile-Information Systems

                        Hayden Brown-HVAC

Finalists:        Ryan Franco-Carpentry

                        Bethany Hughes-Graphics

                        Sean Rourke-Information Systems

                        Briana Dow-Health Technology

                        Valerie Dominguez-Health Technology

                        Tim Goudace-Culinary

                        Christian DiNello-Culinary Arts