Career Skills Olympians Face the Challenge

On March 29, 2012 over 1,000 students from thirty-four high schools in Fresno, Madera and Mariposa Counties converged on the Fresno City College campus to compete in the Career Skills Challenge. The event is held in conjunction with FCC’s Showcase open house each spring. High school students compete against each other in thirty eight different events. The schools are divided into three divisions and all compete for the overall title. 2012 winners are Sequoia Division – Kerman High School; Sierra Division – Firebaugh High School; and Yosemite Division – Sanger High School. Kerman High School scored the highest and won the overall title this year. Two special awards are also given out to students. In the Media Arts categories a ‘best in show’ award known as “The Marty” was presented to Anna Ciremele of Sanger High School and to Ana Linares of Firebaugh High School. The “4th Quarter Award” in memory of former CTE administrator Rick Erlenheim was presented to the Sports Medicine Team of Sara Cuevas, Daisy Mata, Stephanie Okamura, Elvis Pizano, and Noe Salinas of Reedley High School.

Events include Architectural Drafting, Auto Technology, Computer Repair, Fire Fighting, Crime Scene Investigation, Job Seeking Skills and Salad Preparation. Several contests require students to submit entries ahead of time for preliminary judging such as the Career in Education event. Those students must submit the lesson plan that they will be presenting the day of the competition. This allows the judges to provide better feedback to students at the conclusion of the competition than they would have time to do on the CSC day. The Career Skills Challenge couldn’t be successful without the assistance and cooperation of the faculty and staff of FCC. The faculty serve as event managers and recruit judges; FCC staff support the event by providing the stage for the awards ceremony and attending to all the other logistics involved in adding one thousand extra bodies to their campus for a day.