Both us, us being Melissa Lagarde and Derek Hink, are graduating seniors at Frederick County Career and Technology Center (CTC.) Over the course of the year, partly on behalf of luck and circumstances and partly due to sheer practice and refinement of our skills we drove ourselves all the way to the Maryland State SkillsUSA Competition to grab a hold of our second gold medal (last year’s gold was taken by Melissa Lagarde’s team for Broadcast and by Derek Hink in the TV/Production contest.) 

So, as generally accepted amongst those practiced in the nature of competitions, our team is continuing the campaign by attending our second SkillsUSA Nationals Conference in Kansas City.  As members of a four person broadcast news team, we will represent the Frederick County Career and Technology Center as well as the state of Maryland for the second time.

Last year I, Melissa Lagarde, was asked to be the fourth member of the news broadcast team.  The team was made up of three seniors. Due to my joining the team at a later date I was not involved in the early preparation for the competition.  I never witnessed the practices that started months before the state competition.  After winning the state and placing 10^th in the nation I learned the preparation necessary for future success in the SkillsUSA competition.  When we put together our team this year we knew we needed to have a group of people who were dedicated and willing to put in a lot of time.  We practiced weekly after school, running full rehearsals.  I quickly learned just how much goes into a news broadcast.  Aside from just reading and working on our speaking we also worked on little things that contribute a lot to the overall appearance of the production such as where our eyes are looking during the shots and how our make-up should be done.  Through my experience with SkillsUSA I have been able to go out in the community and meet people who work in the Television/Multimedia field.  We have visited the local NBC station and practiced reading at the county and school system television stations.  We have gone out and done broadcasts about events happening at the local fair and participated in the Frederick 72 hour film festival.  The preparations for SkillsUSA State and National Competitions have truly prepared me for graduating and continuing my education.

As opposed to Melissa, I, Derek Hink, believe I learned more about the nature of working on such a large and competitive scale.  The national conference prepared me, but I learned more about the human aspect.  I learned how to work with people from all over and was introduced to the universal aspect of everything.  This is something I was likely only to attain there, a unique opportunity that I thankfully seized and learned much from.  And through it all I also learned more on how to be independent as a self and to support myself.  This independence, I believe, will become integral to any future success.  It has injected a new-found confidence into all my work.

The Frederick Career and Technology Center and SkillsUSA have helped instill and improve skills that we will continue to use in our daily lives and our future education and careers.   We look forward to competing in June and showcasing our broadcasting abilities.