{"id":53769,"date":"2014-02-22T13:00:32","date_gmt":"2014-02-22T18:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=53769"},"modified":"2014-02-22T09:39:19","modified_gmt":"2014-02-22T14:39:19","slug":"morrisville-state-touts-high-tech-equipment-during-skillsusa-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=53769","title":{"rendered":"Morrisville State Touts High-tech Equipment During SkillsUSA Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"welding\"<\/a>A student competes in the welding portion of the SkillsUSA competition.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"auto\"<\/a><\/i>Tyrone Ferguson, 16, of Berkshire, competes through Broome-Tioga BOCES, in the motorcycle repair contest during the SkillsUSA competition.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Cake<\/a><\/i>Chenaya Renski, 19, of Altmar and Oswego County BOCES, makes butter cream frosting for the cake decorating portion of the commercial baking contest.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Photos by Nicolas Murphy, public relations assistant<\/em><\/p>\n

By Franci Valenzano and Randy Dolmo, Public Relations Intern<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

(Morrisville, NY \u2013 Feb. 22, 2014) Matt McDaniels stood calmly, his adrenaline racing as a masked man pointed a rifle at a tavern employee demanding money. After verbal commands to drop the weapon went unheeded, McDaniels quickly reached for the firearm in his holster and shot the gunman.<\/p>\n

The simulated exercise was part of a criminal justice contest during the Region II BOCES SkillsUSA competition held recently at Morrisville State.\u00a0 The \u201cShoot, Don\u2019t Shoot\u201d simulator is a high-tech device that provides participants with real-life scenarios and an inside look at a career in law enforcement.<\/p>\n

An annual event, SkillsUSA features high school students from technical schools and BOCES programs throughout Central New York competing in a variety of events ranging from entrepreneurship, nurse assisting, job interviews, crime scene investigation, commercial baking, culinary arts, and cosmetology, to collision repair technology, carpentry, welding and electrical construction wiring.<\/p>\n

SkillsUSA provides quality education experiences for students in leadership, teamwork, citizenship and character development while building and reinforcing self-confidence, work ethics and communication skills.<\/p>\n

High school students from more than 15 schools showcased a multitude of skills and talents during this year\u2019s event which provides students an opportunity to showcase their skills, while exposing them to Morrisville State\u2019s academic programs, services and state-of-the-art facilities.<\/p>\n

Contests were held throughout the campus including the college\u2019s award-winning automotive building, wood technology facility, and the Copper Turret, a fine dining restaurant run by the college.<\/p>\n

During the criminal justice simulator exercise, McDaniels was\u00a0armed with a semi-automatic Glock pistol, outfitted with a laser in its barrel. Standing about 15 feet from a giant screen, he found himself in an officer\u2019s shoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really cool,\u201d said McDaniels, who competed through Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES. \u201cIt is the closest you get to firing a service weapon and actually being in a situation like a real cop.\u201d\u00a0 McDaniels, 17, of New Hartford, is familiar with handling guns and plans on a career in network security someday.<\/p>\n

The simulator has become an invaluable tool in the college\u2019s criminal justice program and is also available to the State University Police at Morrisville and area law enforcement for practice.<\/p>\n

Also showcased during the competition was the college-run restaurant, The Copper Turret, the scene of a culinary arts competition.\u00a0 In a commercial baking contest held in Seneca Dining Hall, participants were required to bake one dozen cookies, bake and display one dozen muffins, then decorate a cake, all within a two-hour timeframe.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in this (baking contest) did an outstanding job,\u201d said John Felton, chairperson of the baking competition and assistant professor in the college\u2019s hospitality programs. \u201cThey displayed passion and professionalism and were willing to take on any task given to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donald O\u2019Bryan, 17, of Fulton, participated in a quiz bowl in the SkillsUSA leadership contest.\u00a0 \u201cI always look forward to Skills because it gives me an opportunity to challenge myself and meet others who want to challenge themselves and become better intellectually,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan, who competed through Oswego County BOCES, participated in last year\u2019s SkillsUSA where his team earned a gold medal.<\/p>\n

While Zack Hayward, 16, of Vestal and Broome-Tioga BOCES, was busy testing a battery\u2019s charge during the motorcycle repair competition, Nathan Lewis, 18, of Chenango Forks, and Broome-Tioga BOCES, was measuring the lobe on a camshaft of a motorcycle. \u201cThis is a great opportunity for me to gain skills in a very impressive environment,\u201d Lewis said of Morrisville\u2019s automotive facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re representing their schools, they\u2019re representing classes back at the BOCES, so it\u2019s just very exciting for them to be a part of the competition,\u201d said\u00a0 Kathy Finnerty, a teacher at Oswego County BOCES.<\/p>\n

The competition was just as rewarding to Morrisville students including Andew Button, of Penn Yan, who trained on the criminal justice simulator last semester and now gained experience working it during the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a great experience for me,\u201d he said. \u201cThe simulator is an asset to the program, which is already great, giving students a taste of everything from penal law to arson and bomb investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Competitions were judged by Morrisville State faculty, students, and industry and education representatives. The college offered scholarship opportunities to some of the award winners.<\/p>\n

An awards ceremony followed the contests with trophies awarded to the top three finishers in each competition. The top winners in each category go on to compete in the statewide competition. One winner from each state competition will go on to a national competition.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A student competes in the welding portion of the SkillsUSA competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-dZf","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}