Photo Provided by Vol State
By Carolina Cardona
Volunteer State Community College Criminal Justice students received top awards in the SkillsUSA competition.
According the Vol State website, the “Criminal Justice students took top awards in two categories in a statewide SkillsUSA competition held recently in a virtual format.”
Student Lesly Rios Nunez and Nicole Fowler took first place in Crime Scene Investigation, while Sydney Mattern won in the Criminal Justice competition, according to the website.
According to the SkillsUSA mission statement, the competition aims to “empower its members to become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens.”
“We improve the quality of our nation’s future skilled workforce through the development of SkillsUSA Framework, skills that include personal, workplace and technical skills grounded in academics. Our vision is to produce the most highly skilled workforce in the world, providing every member the opportunity for career success,” they said.
According to the Vol State website the competition also came with prizes as “the students received a $50.00 gift card to Lowes and a $12,000 scholarship to Sullivan University for their efforts.”
The students trained with Chief of Vol State Campus Police Tim Anschuetz.
When asked what students took from this competition, Chief Anschuetz said, “I believe that there is a sense of pride and accomplishment that someone gets when they can put into practice the things that are learned in a classroom, and they are successful in that practice.”
When asked about the importance of participating in the competition, he said, “SkillsUSA is a great organization that allows, real, hands-on experience (Scenario-based). I have always taught with the theory that if you actually do the things, you are being taught, actually put them into practice, hands-on, then there is an astronomically better chance that you will retain and have a higher comfort level with the process that you just cannot obtain from just hearing it in a classroom.”
Chief Anschuetz also praised the Criminal Justice Program at Vol State.
“It has been a real source of pride and pleasure to work with Professor Tracy and the Criminal Justice Program as well as with SkillsUSA. I feel like the cooperation between our Campus Police Department and the Criminal Justice Program is a fantastic combination. One of the Vol State Core Values is that ‘We are ALL educators’ and I feel that there is no better partnership to display that value than the partnership that is being forged between the Criminal Justice Program and the Volunteer State Campus Police Department,” he said.
Be First to Comment