McCallum competed in the SkillsUSA district competition for the first time this past weekend. At the District 10 SkillsUSA Leadership and Skills Competition in Waco, the team placed in all but two of the categories that it competed in. The team members who finished first or second qualified for the state contest April 4-7 in Corpus Christi.

“The majority of my students competing this year are freshmen and I couldn’t be happier with our first time competing,” SkillsUSA adviser James Hernandez said. “We placed in more contests than some schools work years for. My students are already talking about what they will do differently for next year and we haven’t even competed at state yet.”

SkillsUSA is a national membership association serving high school, college and middle school students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations, including health occupations, and for further education. SkillsUSA brings together students, teachers and industry to help provide job and skills training.

Hernandez, who is in his second year at Mac, launched the new club this year after having prior experience and success with SkillsUSA at his previous teaching position with Edinburg Independent Consolidated School District in south Texas. He started a SkillsUSA club in Edinburg in his second year of teaching (in 2012), which is exactly what he’s done this year.

“At that time I was teaching Game Design and Web Design so SkillsUSA was a perfect fit since they specialize in Career & Technical Education (CTE) jobs/classes like ours,” Hernandez said. “We had many successes and winners. Every year [that I was there] we have placed in game, web and either pin design or T-shirt design at district allowing us to move on to state in Corpus Christi.”

The highlight for Hernandez’s Edinburg team came in 2016 when his game team won first place at state beating out long-time winners, College Station High School.

“That got us our first shot at competing on the national level in Louisville, Kentucky,” Hernandez said. “Out of 15 teams we ended up in ninth place, which is not bad at all for our first time at nationals.”

The McCallum SkillsUSA team is now preparing for state and is still in the process of collecting donations on their LivingTree fundraiser (https://give.livingtree.com/c/mccallum-high-school-skillsusa-fund).

“Any donations will be greatly appreciated,” Hernandez said. “These will help us not only pay for our district expenses but also for our state trip to Corpus Christi.”

SkillsUSA Skills and Leadership State competition is April 4-7.