Matthew Carmody won fifth place and Joshua Murphy won sixth place.
Two JCC machining students recently placed fifth and sixth in the SkillsUSA national championships held in Louisville, Ky.
Matthew Carmody, 18, of Selma placed fifth in the nation in the CNC technician competition. Joshua Murphy, 18, of Smithfield, placed sixth in the CNC turning competition.
The SkillsUSA championships took place June 25-29 as part of the SkillsUSA 54th National Leadership and Skills Conference (NLSC), a showcase of career and technical education students. During the week, more than 6,200 outstanding career and technical education students – all state contest winners – competed in over 100 different hands-on trade, technical and leadership fields. 460 North Carolinians from 17 community colleges & 41 high schools participated in the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference.
“We are very proud of Matthew’s and Joshua’s accomplishments and they are fine examples of what students in our program can achieve,” said Dwight Barnes, machining instructor at JCC.
During the national competition, students worked against the clock and each other, proving their expertise in occupations like electronics, computer-aided drafting, precision machining, medical assisting and culinary arts. All contests are run with the help of industry, trade associations, and labor organizations, and test competencies are set by industry. In addition, leadership contestants demonstrated their skills, which included extemporaneous speaking and conducting meetings by parliamentary procedure.
The SkillsUSA Championships has grown from 54 competitors in three contests in 1967 to more than 6,200 competitors in 102 hands-on skill and leadership contests this year.
