MUSCLE SHOALS, ALA. — Two Northwest-Shoals Community College (NW-SCC) Carpentry and Cabinetmaking students are preparing to compete in next week’s National SkillsUSA competition in Louisville, Ky., after winning the State SkillsUSA for the 14th consecutive year.
NW-SCC students, Patrick Smith, of Killen, and Logan Trousdale, of Florence, will represent the state of Alabama at the 54th annual SkillsUSA National Competition June 25-29, 2018. Smith won first place in Carpentry at the State SkillsUSA competition in late April and Trousdale won first place in Cabinetmaking.
According to NW-SCC Carpentry and Cabinetmaking Instructor, Titus Grisham, this is the kind of success his program strives for each year. “Our program has produced state champions in Carpentry and/or Cabinetmaking for the past 14 years in a row,” said Grisham. “We take great pride in the competition success of our program, but we are even more proud of the 100% job placement rate of our graduates.”
Smith and Trousdale were products of the Allen Thornton Career Technical Center prior to enrolling at NW-SCC to improve on the skills they learned while in high school. “I’ve been around woodworking most of my life,” said Smith. “Northwest-Shoals and Allen Thornton gave me the opportunity to take that basic knowledge I have from building boat houses with my uncle and improve my skills. I hope when I finish I will be able to become a contractor building boat houses or something similar.”
Trousdale plans to finish his degree this fall and hopes to join the Carpenters Local Union 1209.
Also, NW-SCC SkillsUSA sponsor Melinda Grissom was awarded College Advisor of the Year for the second consecutive year (2017 and 2018) for Alabama SkillsUSA.
SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. SkillsUSA’s mission is to empower its members to become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens. The SkillsUSA organization works to help students excel. SkillsUSA serves more than 300,000 students and instructors annually. The organization has 13,000 school chapters in 54 state and territorial associations. More than 14,500 instructors and administrators are professional members of SkillsUSA.