Elizabeth Nunez, a student at the William M. Davies Career and Technical High School, competes in the basic health care skills competition last month in Kansas City.

Courtesy of SkillsUSA

The Rhode Island chapter of SkillsUSA, a national organization for career and technical students, brought 65 students to a series of national competitions in Kansas City from June 22 to 28. More than 5,000 students competed in more than 90 different skill contests. Eight Rhode Island students ended up bringing home medals, in subjects that ranged from culinary arts to residential wiring.

Joshua Klemp, state director for SkillsUSA, said the organization has 5,400 members, including both high school and college students, in Rhode Island. High school students in career and technical schools are enrolled automatically through their schools, which pay a flat fee to SkillsUSA depending on enrollment. (A school with between 250 and 500 students pays about $2,100, Klemp said.) Fifteen high schools and five colleges in the state have SkillsUSA chapters.

The focus of SkillsUSA, formerly the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America, is on building job skills, leadership and poise through a series of competitions. SkillsUSA held a state competition in March, and the best performers got to go on to the national competition in Kansas City.

Among the participants was Mariama Kurbally, 18, of Pawtucket, who was in a “professional portfolio” competition. Part of the contest consisted of a written portfolio — resume, career objectives, references, awards, etc. — and part required students to make an oral presentation before a panel of judges.

Kurbally, who was former state president of SkillsUSA Rhode Island’s high school division, said SkillsUSA helps students build both specific occupational skills and more general leadership abilities. She said she plans to attend Temple University, in Philadelphia, majoring in public health with a minor in international relations. Ultimately, she said, she’d like to work for the United Nations.

James Carroll, 18, of Warwick, was a silver medalist in the preschool teaching assistant competition. For the national competition, he said, judges had him design a math lesson plan, indicating objectives, materials and methods. Then he had to teach his plan, with a big stuffed teddy bear substituting for an actual student.

“That was strange. It was like acting, in a way,” Carroll said.

Carroll said the Kansas City competition was his first extended time away from home by himself. “I relied a lot on wake-up calls from the hotel management,” he said. “And I met hundreds of new friends.”

Carroll said he plans to go to CCRI next year and study to be an emergency medical technician and take courses in fire science, with the goal of becoming a firefighter. His long-range plan, though, is still to work in elementary education.

Elizabeth Guillen, 17, of Woonsocket, won a national silver medal winner in the “Health Occupations Knowledge Bowl,” which she described as “a more intense, medical version of Jeopardy. Guillen said she plans to attend Rhode Island College and study nursing.

Here are the Rhode Island medal winners from last month’s national competition:

Gold Medal Winner: Margarita Luna, William M. Davies Career and Technical High School. First aid and CPR competition. Ryan Fitzgerald, IBEW Local 99 Apprenticeship Program. Industrial Motor Control.

Silver Medal Winners: James Carroll, Warwick Career and Technical Center, Preschool Teaching Assistant Award Competition. Elizabeth Guillen, Shanna Molina and Jessica Jordan, Woonsocket Area Career and Technical Center, Health Occupations Knowledge Bowl.

Bronze Medal Winners: Dayna Restrepo, Davies Career and Technical Center, Action Skills Competition. Michael Paris, Johnson & Wales University, Culinary Arts. Shaun Hennessy, IBEW Local 99 Apprenticeship Program, Residential Wiring.

asmith@projo.com