POV: First Time At SkillsUSA NSLC
As an AVTF teacher in the state of Georgia, the standards-designated student organization is SkillsUSA. Hearing opinions from teachers about the organization, I was skeptical about my involvement in the club.
However, after having the opportunity to attend their National Leadership and Skills Conference last week, I am grateful for sticking with it and am fired up for the future of SkillsUSA at Long County High School.
Entering the year, I was clueless about the club. What it meant, what they “did”, and what I was supposed to do as an advisor. I felt this way mostly until Ashley Acuff took over as state executive director in November. From then on, I felt supported, heard, and truly a part of an amazing community. This helped me really turn on my passion for the club, learning what it truly meant and promoted to my students.
In January, students began getting ready for the State Leadership and Skills Conference. I took 13 students with me with all but two of them competing in AVTF competitions The other two that didn’t compete in AVTF competitions took on the category of Interactive Application and Video Game Development. The Georgia contest is an online assessment and they weren’t expecting much due to their lack of experience with 3D game design. Their surprise when they were named a medalist was great. Their shock when they were named State Champions was even better. This then gave us the opportunity to attend NLSC in June. Again, I was clueless and had 1,000 questions for the national committee and Ms. Acuff.
After four months of hard work, which included them scrapping their idea two months in and starting from scratch, they had their game ready to present to judges. They were as ready as they were going to be.
Monday of NLSC week was an interesting one. Upon arrival at the hotel, we learned that two of the four elevators were down with no solution for them to be fixed. They were still down when we left for the last time Friday morning. 47 floors and around seven states of student organizations made for one interesting week of elevator rides. Luckily, a handful of students, mine included, found the service elevators and proceeded to take advantage of them.
We met Megan DeBisschop, a graphic design teacher at Hiram High School, and her student competing in Screenprinting Technology. We became each other’s cheerleaders throughout the week, unintentionally meeting up at random times. Having attended SLSC at the Georgia World Congress Center in February, we knew what to expect with the size of the building. However, we did not get to see two of the exhibit halls, which tripled our walking distance.That was an experience in and of itself. I made sure to set my Apple Watch for an Indoor Walk exercise every morning, ending the week with over 25 miles walked.
Jamie Trask from Fayetteville High School
Tuesday, the students were greeted with several industry professionals and game design instructors from across the country that would be their judges for the contest. They were briefed on what to expect and allowed to set up their equipment Wednesday morning. I let my students explore the TECHSPO halls while I completed some of the Academy of Excellence and SkillsUSA University sessions. I even got to catch up with some of my fellow AVTF colleagues from around the state. I got to participate in a fun activity in a session led by Jamey Trask, AVTF teacher at Fayette County HIgh School, that I will be able to take back to my students while I heard all about the film side of things from Chris Holcomb from Cambridge High School.
But this was not before the Opening Session Tuesday night when we were treated with speeches from Chris Gardner, the real life inspiration of the movie The Pursuit of Happiness, and Cory James, a former SkillsUSA Georgia student who is now a reporter for DC News Now. Getting to hear from James was a great listen, especially since he competed in the same contest many of my students competed in and will compete in at future events.
Wednesday was where the real fun began. The Interactive Application and Video Game Development contest is different from most other SkillsUSA contests as the general public are allowed to come into the contest area and actually test out the games made by the high school and college students. The students’ game Flock N’ Roll, a 2D side scrolling platformer about a shepherd named Luke trying to retrieve his lost sheep, quickly became a fan favorite among the competitors and other students that came into the contest area.
The first day ended with their game being the last one judged and the group of judges being very complimentary of their game. They received great feedback and constructive criticism which gave them hope for their finish on Friday.
Thursday was much of the same, with students trying to beat each other’s score on the “Time Attack” mode of the game. It was quickly becoming the hottest speedrun game of the week. I made sure to tell both of my students that no matter where they finished, having students enjoy playing their game was a bigger compliment than anything the judges would ever tell them. Of course, having the judges say positive things about their game was also a good sign for them.
Then, Friday came. The awards ceremony came. I sat sections away from my students. I sat through what felt like hours upon hours of contest medalists being named and awarded with our contest yet to be announced. Then we finally got to our cluster and I knew we would be about halfway down the list. Then Iheard our contest. Time slowed down as California, Washington, and Texas were named as thefinalists.
My heart dropped. Was I expecting them to win the national championship? No. Honestly, I wasn’t completely sure if they would be in the top three, but the positive feedback all week definitely gave us hope. Later that night, we received our placement: 16th. Of course, we all expected it to be a little higher than it was, but for two students whose video game design experience is completely self- taught, I take it as a win.
One of my students will be pursuing Game Design at Kennesaw State University and be a member of their marching band in the fall while the other will enter his senior year of high school. I made sure that they were aware of how proud of them I was and told my returning high schooler that he should take the feeling he had after the awards ceremony, amplify it and be determined not to have that same feeling in 2025. No matter what, they should be proud of the effort they put forth to be able to represent the state of Georgia in video game design at the national level from a small, one redlight town in southeast Georgia.
SkillsUSA, for all the frustration I had midway through the school year, is an amazing organization. I am determined to make it one of the biggest and best clubs at Long County High School, not just for me, but for my student professionals that deserve the chance to know someone cares about their future.
Meet the Author, Caleb Bailey
Caleb Bailey is a teacher at his alma mater Long County HIgh School in Ludowici, Georgia. He is entering his third year teaching AVTF while going into his 9th year in education. He spent those first 6 years as a freshman ELA and beginning journalism teacher. His experience with journalism stems back to his high school years as a student journalist for the school newspaper and yearbook. A print sports journalist by trade, Caleb had very little broadcast experience and almost no film experience when he was asked to start the AVTF class in Ludowici. He used his experience leading a team of students to film football games for team film for 6 years to start the new class and is learning new things every day to take back to his students.
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