Northern Students Win National Medals
Summer 2006

There were 22 Montana students (15 high school and 7 college) who qualified to go to Kansas City to compete against 4,700 students in eighty four different trades, technical and leadership fields at the national SkillsUSA conference. Northern had two Gold medalists, Nick Johnson repeated as National champion in the automotive contest and Cody Blanchard won a Gold medal in the diesel competition and 4th place in job skill demonstration. Megan Cail also from MSU Northern received 10th place in technical drafting.

Nick Johnson



Cody Blanchard 
  

Nick Johnson



Cody Blanchard

  

Montana has been competing in this competition since 1970 and has done very well. MSU Northern has won 13 medals in Automotive since 1989 with seven gold two silver and four bronze medals. Northern has also 10 metals in Diesel since 1980 with two gold metals being won in 2003 and 2004. Helena Capital High School has won five medals in automotive with two gold, two silver and one bronze with the most recent gold medal in 2004.

Working against the clock and each other, the participants proved their expertise in job skills from occupations such as electronics, technical drafting, precision machining, medical assisting and culinary arts. There were also competitions in leadership skills such as extemporaneous speaking and parliamentary procedures.

Contestants must be able to demonstrate their ability to perform jobs and skills based on the task list as outlined by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) and the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF). There are thirteen skill workstations that consist of on vehicle, simulations, bench and component tests and a written test. Contestants are judged on the technical competency, accuracy, quality, safety and ability to follow directions.

This is a tremendous accomplishment as our students compete against winners from the best schools from every state in the USA.
 

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