We're glad to talk about skills USA and put the spotlight on that organization here on today's morning show.
Join us Ashley Westerfeld who is the school Richland Center skills USA advisor and Ali Elder is here.
George Lobmeyer will hear their story and what they're involved in as well.
Ashley, good to have you on the program today.
It's great to be here.
Thanks for inviting us.
So tell us about skills USA.
Give us a breakdown if you
would.
We're still pretty new as far as in Richland Center, so we're still
kind of learning the ropes but ultimately SkillsUSA is a great student organization that's based off of the curriculum in the career and technical education world.
It combines all skills in all of those areas and really gets students practicing and moving towards a career and connecting them with businesses local and nationwide and so forth.
Since you began your career at Richland Center High School some years ago, things have really taken off in that field, haven't they?
Yeah, we've been working really hard to grow the CTE program over at the Richland Center High School.
We've got really great teachers.
We've got three teachers over in TechEd.
We've got a teacher in Ag, two teachers in business, and then I teach family and consumer sciences.
And we've been working really hard to really grow our programs and make it very relatable and help students be able to
go from school into the job force or into a tech school and make it applicable for the future.
Do you know approximately how many students are involved from Richland Center High School?
in a CTE program, or I don't know that number offhand.
I know we have several YA students, so YA being youth apprenticeship, that has been growing, and we're hoping to get more and more students involved in that, more and more businesses involved in that.
But as far as how many are in CTE, I mean, I would say a number of our students generally take CTE courses, so it's pretty high.
Yeah.
Were you excited to bring SkillsUSA to Richland Center High School?
I was.
I have been wanting to bring in either.
So there's another program I could do that's FCCLA.
That's strictly just family consumer sciences.
I had worked on looking at that one and then looking at SkillsUSA and one thing I love about SkillsUSA is it covers everything.
And I absolutely am in love with it.
So I'm super glad and we've had a really good turnout.
We've had an interest of 25 students already and that's just our first.
year.
Can you give us an idea of the varied interest that the students have?
I mean, even just in this room, you know, we have a student here who's interested in electronics.
We have a student who is in criminal justice.
And at state, we're going to have four students competing in culinary arts.
We have many leadership skills being developed with prepared speeches, things like that.
We've got carpentry, welding.
I'm trying to think if I'm missing anything.
I'm trying to remember other things, but it's, there's a lot of, it's a lot of varied interest.
That is really interesting and it's a category that we've...
kind of touch down on the program, but it's nice to spotlight it.
Tell me about state and what that involves
then.
So state has, it's a competition located in Madison, so it's based out of the Align Energy Center with several of the competitions happening over at Madison College.
But the students, there isn't a prerec to get into state.
You don't necessarily have to qualify right away, but there are many regional competitions in other local
competitions that students can go to get awards and hone their skills, practice their events.
And then when they choose to go to state, they can compete in whatever they want.
They have to provide resumes.
They have to be able to interview and answer professionally about the items that they are working with, whether it's a product or leadership skill, something along that line.
But we all go, we're all there for two days.
And then they compete in their stuff.
For instance, culinary is they get four hours to bake four items and present that to the judges and so forth.
What will they be baking?
Well, that group is going to be, we're just looking at it this morning.
We just got the information on it and the recipes.
So they are going to be doing an apple galette.
They have to do three of those.
They have to do 10 cranberry oat cookies, as well as braided bread, dinner rolls, and decorating a cake.
and they'll have to do that in four hours, so.
Right.
I wonder if they need volunteer judges to test.
I
wanted to do that myself, yes.
Sounds like a good plan.
Yep.
How many students from Richmond Center will be involved in state then, Ashley?
We have 16.
That's
a
great number.
And we have two wonderful students sitting here that are excited and pumping their arms right now.
Okay.
And of all those, why did you choose Ally and George?
to bring along
here.
Yes, yes.
These two have been amazing leaders in our group.
They both have gone above and beyond with helping organizing fundraising and then working all the fundraisers and really recruiting all the other members and they're almost like the cheerleaders of the group as well as everything else.
They are fantastic students.
They are both competing in state and they are
I'm really excited to see how they continue, and I thought that they would really want to do this.
Well, it's good to have them.
Allie, we'll start with you.
All
right.
Tell us a little bit about yourself, if you would.
All right.
Well, my name is Allie Elder.
I'm vice president of the SkillsUSA group.
I've organized a lot of things for SkillsUSA.
I've helped a lot with the harvest breakfast that we did with FFA.
I also...
organize a trunk retreat that we had earlier in the fall.
I'm going through their criminal justice program and crime scenes investigations.
So for regionals I did their job and skill demonstration competition and I believe I came in fourth for that competition with like 10 kids in my group.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm doing.
Did you have to go through an interview process
then?
Yes, so for job skill demonstration you have to choose one thing and you're
career field and I chose like lifting a fingerprint and I had a friend with me who was my volunteer that I lifted her fingerprints and you have to describe what you're doing and the process to a Judge there's usually two or three judges and you also have to give them a resume They really liked my resume and I did a really good job
I showed them how to properly lift a fingerprint, how to profitably record it to send over to analysis.
And yeah.
Was she guilty then?
Yes, she was very
guilty.
But the interview process, I mean, you got to feel that's going to better prepare you for down the road when you're out and you have to.
go get a job somewhere, right?
Yes, it was very good to learn how to talk professionally to other people and how to treat everybody with respect.
That's a big thing that you have to learn.
And it's very big to learn how to talk professionally to other adults and other human beings.
Why does your topic, you know, criminal justice and that kind of thing, why does that fascinate you?
I've always been interested in protecting people.
I call it the older sibling in me.
I've always been very interested in that.
I've seen
Um, several of people that I care about be, um, have to deal with that and kind of be failed by the system.
So I kind of wanted to make a change.
And that's where I decided to go through criminal justice.
And I was very excited to learn that skills actually has something through that and crime scene investigations.
So, um, I immediately jumped on that.
Is that something you'd like to get into when your screen days are done?
I've done
several ride-alongs and
I'm
starting to go through, um, Southwest tech programs to eventually become one.
Do you like the TV programs that focus on it?
Yes, yes, I'm a big fan of the rookie
Problem is there they have to they have to solve it in an hour.
Yeah, you know And that's kind of hard to do sometimes.
I think in real life.
Yes And what grade are you this year?
I am a junior.
You're a junior.
Okay, so looking forward to that What are some other things that you're involved in at Richland Center High
School?
I'm involved in a lot.
I was in student council for a while.
I helped a lot with organizing for the blood drives.
I'm not in that anymore because I wanted to focus most of my time on skills and just really make sure that skills is going in a good direction.
So right now my main focus is SkillsUSA.
Do you become a recruiter?
Do you go down the halls and say, hey, you need to do this?
Yep.
I've recruited several of the boys in tech and several of my friends to get into it.
George actually was one of the people who recorded me in Miss West, so she kind of recruited me a lot.
So it took some persuading.
Yes, yes, it did because it
was a new program.
I didn't know anything about it.
But once I got to really learn what it was, I really realized that that is something that I need to be involved in.
So I've really taken the lead role on making sure that skills USA is involved.
We're doing things.
We help FFA.
We help student council do things.
We're helping kids in our tech do things and actually be able to work on their skills outside of just taking a tech class.
Yeah, because I know one of your members we interviewed
they were doing a promo with FFA at that time.
So you do work together with other clubs too.
Yes,
yes we do.
Yeah, that's that's fascinating.
You look to do it again your senior year too.
Yes, I hope to become president next year.
I'll be running at the end of this year and I hope that we can do a lot more next year just when we have more.
involvement in the school now that more people are aware of us.
I hope to do a lot more fun events and more competitions hopefully.
Do you have to campaign for president then?
Yes, yes I do have to campaign and compete.
Okay well good luck with that.
Thank
you.
And if you need some radio ads just let us know.
George Laubmeyer is here as well.
Looking good today.
How you doing, George?
Yeah, I'm doing well.
How
are you?
Oh, great.
Great to have you in here.
So you are, what, a sophomore this year?
Yes, I am a sophomore.
Seems like only yesterday we were interviewing you at St.
Mary.
So that's not been...
Yes, been a while.
So tell us why you're involved in SkillsUSA.
So I'm involved in SkillsUSA through my dad.
He's been in... He's been a part of SkillsUSA since...
The early 90s back when it was called Vicka Currently, I'm the parliamentarian for our skills USA chapter and I'm having a lot of fun with it.
Awesome.
So your dad He helped teach it then he helped organize it
down.
So he he was in it as a student and then he was Then one of the people that actually helped to run the state conference here and he actually runs
competitions down at the national competition in Atlanta, Georgia.
I'm glad you mentioned Vicka because then it became clear I remember Vicka really well.
So this is an offshoot of that.
Yes, so it is the new recreation of Vicka because nobody does vocad anymore.
Nobody does
vocational, industrial things anymore.
It's now all your technical education and everything.
So it didn't need a lot of recruiting for you to join skills then.
No.
Okay.
So tell us what you'll be presenting at state.
So at state, I'm going to be running for state office.
I will be running for to be the district six vice president of Wisconsin Skills USA.
Do you need radio ads or not?
So what do you have to do, George?
So for that, I have to create a trifold that explains why I want to be a state officer for SkillsUSA.
I have to create and speak.
good maybe five or six speeches over the course of two days.
And I have to do a lot of campaigning.
And it involves candy.
Interesting.
So you basically have to get up there and promote yourself then in other words, don't you?
Yes.
Okay.
So are you collecting your thoughts on what you're going to say and talk about your strengths and things like that?
Yeah.
So some of the things that I
would talk about is like my role through SkillsUSA over the years because this this is my first year part of the chapter but um when I was younger I would help my dad down at nationals or at state also so I know a little bit about skill a little bit more about SkillsUSA um but some of the some of the things I could talk about is that
I'm really, I'm not the best at talking to people, but I can talk to people when it sort of becomes relevant or when I absolutely need to.
I'll be nervous, but I can talk to people, so.
What a great life skill this is going to be though for you and, you know, maybe getting out of your comfort zone a little bit.
Yeah, one of the things that schools use to say tries to do is to
push your limits further outside the comfort zone to try to extend the comfort zone level so that you can create new skills and expand them to new heights.
Are you involved in any other skills at state coming up here?
I
am not mainly because
I have to focus on running for office.
If I would do a different competition at state, I would have to make sure it does not line up with anything for running for office.
What would interest you, let's say that you were maybe next year or something down the road?
So something that will probably interest me is something with electronics or if SkillsUSA randomly decides to bring music into SkillsUSA, then I'd do something with that.
But next year I'm planning on rerunning for a different position for office if I get elected this year.
So is there like a rewiring guitar or anything like that to involve maybe or?
I don't think so.
I mean I could do job skill demonstration like Allie did at...
at regionals, I could do that at state and I could show people how to restring a piano or how to fix a piano or something like that, but I'd have to learn how to do that first.
Okay.
And the group that's going from Richland Center, that's a lot of students.
It sounds like a real wide array of talents there.
Yes, it is a very good and very big.
group of students.
So if you are successful at running for office then what happens after that?
So if I get elected to state office I then on the 15th have a online meeting with the rest of the state officers and then I get to go to nationals the first through the fifth of June in Atlanta, Georgia.
Boy, that would be fun.
Yeah.
Is your dad going anyway?
Yes.
So that'd be a family affair then, wouldn't it?
So work on that a little bit, I guess, right?
Yeah.
Well, that's going to be great.
Some other things that you wanted to talk about today, Allie?
Yeah.
I mean, we do have a couple of students that are interested in music like G5 or G5.
We have one of our students that might be playing the National Anthem with his saxophone at competitions.
So that would be really excited.
He is.
OK, he is.
He
is getting the
national anthem
part.
Logan Peterson.
Logan is going to play.
Yes.
For sure going to play in the national anthem in front of all.
Two thousand
two
thousand five hundred kids
Yeah, if you guys heard him play nationally at them at the high school, so
and we have yeah Yeah, that's that's out of sight pretty excited.
Well, that's gonna be a proud moment for you as a student group, isn't
it?
Yes,
sure one of your own getting that chance there It sounds like they're really well prepared Ashley these two students and you want to add as you listen to the conversation about them or anything?
Well, I will
And George is very humble.
I think he is more confident and good at speaking with people, better at speaking with people than he.
was letting on there for a moment.
He generally is the one who takes charge and talks with people in recruiting, which is why he's our number one recruiter.
And to be perfectly honest, he played a role in recruiting me even.
So him and his dad were a big help in recruiting me as an advisor.
He
mentioned, he name dropped you and I wasn't sure what he meant by that.
So he actually came to you and explained why you needed to do
this.
Yeah.
So skills.
USA was kind of getting started up a little bit last year with Mr. Harlan before Mr. Harlan decided to leave the district.
And I had been a part of that conversation, but more of a background.
I was interested in the culinary arts, being a part of what I taught for a program.
But I wasn't necessarily jumping on the bandwagon yet.
I wasn't sold.
And then it kind of, after Mr. Harlan left, then the school kind of started talking with me a little bit about it more.
And then that's when the Georges kind of came in and started talking to me more about it.
and started selling me on it and then I really looked into it and I'm like oh wow I had no idea this is this is fantastic and love it now
that's a different swing around you know the student convincing the advisor instead of the other way around
usually that's the best way to go when the students are engaged and excited there's not a whole lot that I have to do they get to
they get to be the ones to really lead and run, which is fantastic to
see.
I would say you probably just get out of the way.
Exactly.
Let them do it.
But at State, Ashley, it's probably a real lesson in coordination because they have to be at certain spots at certain times, don't
they?
Yep, certain spots, certain times, a lot of equipment to figure out.
So we're going to probably be bringing a whole other truck on top of our vans.
A lot of different things kind of play in roles here.
We have two teams doing welding fabric.
So there's teams of three, and we have two of those teams that are currently right now working on part of their product as a part of their competition.
So they're doing that this afternoon while we're doing this.
And so we'll have to bring that along.
There is a lot of upfront work.
My culinary students, we've been planning all day that over spring break, those who can attend are not going to just be taking a break.
We're actually going to get together and we're going to do a trial run of the recipes and work on that.
Fun.
And you stay overnight in Madison during that time frame?
Yes, we
will
be.
So that'll be a good outing.
And Ally and George, you know, I'm thinking that this thing's only going to get bigger and better.
skills USA at Richland Center High School growing next year?
Yes, I really hope so.
I really hope it's gonna really flourish, especially like after I'm a senior.
I hope to train a couple students to become president and vice president and really be able to know how to carry things, really know how to do our events and make them annual.
I really hope to see it grow.
I mean, it's such a good program to get your kids into.
It's such a good program for you to be in.
It's just good to help you.
even just see what careers are out there like I feel high schoolers don't always get the chance to see other careers out there and It's such a great opportunity to actually be able to see your career So I really hope to see skills grow and become a really big thing like FFA that become a really big thing in our community
George anything you'd like to add about
it?
So something you're implying to do is after I graduate from Richland Center and
two-ish years.
I want to stay involved in our chapter at Richland Center.
I don't want to just graduate and leave and be done like most kids would.
They wouldn't graduate and then they're like, well, I'm done.
It's behind me now.
I want to stay involved in SkillsUSA and help the chapter after I graduate with what I can.
And what would you like to get into for a career someday?
Any idea?
I think I may have, I may have asked you that before somewhere along the line.
Probably.
Um, probably something music related.
Um, I have been thinking about becoming a priest for the Catholic church.
Um, I mean, our priest here in town has said that the seminary is always looking for musically inclined priests.
So I don't know.
Yeah.
Something along the lines.
Good for you.
That's just awesome.
And you got a lot of options.
It sounds like that.
Absolutely.
Well, good to have you both in here.
We wish you best of luck at state.
Good luck with your campaign too, George.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
Let us know how it goes.
I will.
All right.
Anything else you wanted to add here today, Ashley?
I don't think so.
Other than, I just want to bring up that anyone listening to this, if you are interested at all to learn more about SkillsUSA or connect with us in any way, if you're a business, someone in the industry, I mean, we're literally training students to be in the workforce.
Please reach out.
Just reach out to the high school.
They can get ahold of me, get you in contact with anybody.
If you have students who need to find a path, send them our way because we can all...
always take on more members and help them find something that they might enjoy.
Indeed.
Thanks for coming in.
Good luck.
All right.
Thank you.
Yeah.
We know you'll represent well.
Ashley Westerfeld joining us.
The Skills USA Advisor at Richland Center High School and Allie Elder and George Laubmeyer.
Both students will be involved on April 7th and 8th.