Three NNPS Telecom students are headed to the SkillsUSA Virginia State Leadership Conference, which will be held in Virginia Beach April 21 - 23.

SkillsUSA is a career and technical student organization that Telecom students can join. The goal of SkillsUSA is to ensure that America has a skilled workforce. Students, teachers, and industry work toward that goal, mostly through conferences featuring competitions.

Telecom students have been participating in these conferences for over 20 years. Telecom Supervisor Ray Price and Instructor Carl Daniels Jr. are the advisors.

This year, there is no district-level competition for Telecom, so they move straight to the state competition.

The participating Telecom students are: Fantasee Carey in Job Skill Demonstration, Jolyne Roldan in Television Production (Pre-Produced Special Effects), and Jacob Trias in State Pin Design (Pre-Judged).

The students represent three NNPS high schools: Carey is a Denbigh senior, Roldan a Heritage senior, and Trias is a Menchville junior.

Competitors in the Job Skill Demonstration must demonstrate and explain an entry-level technical skill that is used in their field of study. The competitor may use experiments, displays, or practical operations.

For the Television Production (Pre-Produced Special Effects) competition, competitors submit a commercial, promo, or public service announcement that they have created. It can be either 30- or 60-seconds long, and can be based on real life or can be fictional. Roldan's is a 30-second PSA on recycling.

The pin design competition involves creating artwork of an original design for a pin that conference attendees collect. Additionally, competitors must include a narrative explaining how they came up with the design, how they designed it, and why they feel it represents their state, among other things.

It is pre-judged, and Telecom was notified that Trias' design made the top three in the state, which thrilled advisors Daniels and Price.

"We've never had anyone in the top three before," said Price about the State Pin competition.

For all categories, state-level winners advance to the National Leadership and Skills Conference (NLSC) to compete against other state winners.

The NLSC will be held June 19 - 23 in Atlanta, Georgia.