SD83 Students Strike Gold!
“It should be pretty looking,” remarked Nya Korpa referring to her work in the Electrical Foundations category at the Skills Canada Regional Competition at Thompson Rivers University.
The red seal electrician judges thought it was more than just pretty.
The Grade 12 AL Fortune student took home gold in the competition. A product of SD83’s dual credit program with Okanagan College, Korpa didn’t just have to fight off her competitors during the over two hour exercise but also had to battle a migraine while working the tools. Despite this, Korpa felt confident she could place well, but felt once she finished the task that “it was still a little up in the air.”
Korpa and her competitors had three tasks to perform in their cubicles: mount a baseboard heater with an inline thermostat; set up a vanity light with a three-way switch; and install a receptacle which needed to flow to an arch fault breaker in a breaker box. The judges said Korpa’s work was very clean when giving feedback to the students.
Three other SD83 students placed in the top three at the junior skills events. Pleasant Valley Secondary Grade 12 student Arel Ciccone took gold while Grade 11 school mate Owen Severinski earned Silver in Automotive. Another PVSS student, Grade 11 Henry Flores, received Silver in Culinary, an impressive feat since he just started the Professional Cook Level One dual credit training at AL Fortune just three weeks ago while competing against older competitors with more industry training. There were two other PVSS students that competed at the Skills Canada in welding but did not place. Korpa, Ciccone and the other top three contestants now qualify to travel to Abbotsford on April 17th to compete in the Provincial Skills Canada event.
Skills Canada is a national, non-profit organization that works with employers, educators , labour groups and governments to promote careers in skilled trades and technology to Canadian Youth. However, the organization does not just focus on older students.
Grade seven and eight students from AL Fortune and other schools in the region competed in the traditional spaghetti bridge competition. Teams of two or three had over two hours to make a bridge out of pasta that could hold a one kg weight suspended below its deck for one minute. The top three bridges that could handle that without busting and be the most lightweight would be winners. AL Fortune students placed silver and bronze in the eight team competition. Braydon Golz and Austin Clark had a bridge weighing 51 grams to place second while Will Baird and Eden Douglas came third with a 59 gram bridge. The winners from Kamloops had a 47 gram bridge.
There are also opportunities for students to Try-A-Trade while at Thompson Rivers University’s Trades centre. Six groups of grade seven students from various school across the region were able to check out the program for the day. Eagle River Secondary’s grade seven class got a chance to experience six career stations: Millwright, Heavy Duty & Mechanical, Welding, Plumbing, Horticulture and Instrumentation.
If you would like to learn more about SD83 dual credit trades opportunities, please get hold of SD83 Trades and Transitions Coordinator & AL Fortune Secondary Career Coordinator Michelle Hall at 250-838-6431.