Hello everyone,

I would like to start off by saying that all of our students represented Old Colony well at the district conference yesterday. It is with great pride to tell all of you that our students won medals in 14 different competitions yesterday as they competed against 7 other schools in district one. The medal count was 4 gold, 7 silver, and 7 bronze. I have listed below the medal winners.

Gold Medalists

• Bethany Spangler, Carpentry

• Jakob Rinkus, Electronics Technology

• Savannah Lopes, Nail Care

• Sky Bowker, Technical Drafting

Silver Medalists

• Paul Ashley Jr, Automotive Service Technology

• Taylor Rowe, Cosmetology

• Michael Mello, Culinary Arts

• John Barnes, Electronics Technology

• Kirsten Galas, Nail Care

• Leah Studer, Technical Drafting

• Sadie Lombardi & Matt Leate, Web Design (team event)

Bronze Medalists

• Noah Cavallaro, CNC Technician

• Sadie Amaral, Cosmetology

• Mikayla Murray, Cosmetology Under 500 hours

• Ethan Stevens, Culinary Arts

• Rebecca Dawicki, Nurse Assisting

• Michael Donachie, Technical Computer Applications

• Kaitlynn Lurie, Welding Sculpture

The students moving on to states are those who won a gold or silver medal. The bronze medalists will have a chance to attend the state conference if individuals in their competition can not make the state conference or drop out. Further details on state standards for each competition will be given to shop instructors after April 1st. District scores for each student will be available towards the end of March. Lindsey and I will send these individual scores to shop instructors when they become available. With that being said, there is one more piece of information that I would like to share with all of you.

While most of our students were competing in their technical area specific competitions, there was one Old Colony student trying to earn her spot at the state conference as a state officer candidate. This individual spent countless hours preparing and studying for the district competition. I am pleased to tell you that the hard work payed off, because Heather Medeiros will be one of five students representing district one at the state conference. This is a great opportunity for Old Colony to show their school pride at the state level. I will be completely honest, as a former state officer candidate there is no better feeling than hearing your name get called at the district conference, but it is a greater disappointment when your name does not get called at states. This is something that I hope does not happen this year. With less than eight short weeks until the state conference, the preparation for a successful campaign has begun. There is a lot of work to be done to ensure Old Colony comes home with a state officer for the 2017-2018 school year. Lindsey and I are asking all of you to seek out individuals who possess quality leadership skills and teamwork skills. These individuals will go through an application process and a select few will be chosen to serve on Heather’s voting delegate team. This delegate team is a vital part of the campaign process. This delegate team will be responsible for persuading other delegates from vocational schools across Massachusetts to vote for Old Colony’s state officer candidate. Your help is greatly appreciated in this process and there will be further information very soon on when we will begin the delegate process. There will also be further information on other leadership competitions that students can compete in at the state conference.

My final message is simple. We are on to the state competition!

Sincerely,

Norman L’Heureux and Lindsey Couto

Old Colony SkillsUSA Chapter Advisors