Foothill seniors prove Web prowess with SkillsUSA win
Putting their skills to the test, Henderson residents Dustin Griffie and Blake Wilson learned the importance of teamwork.
The two incoming seniors at Foothill High School, 800 College Drive, received gold medals for Web design at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Kansas City, Mo., June 23-27.
SkillsUSA is an after-school organization that prepares students for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations. The nonprofit allows students to specialize in more than 100 programs, such as robotics, emergency medicine and crime scene investigation, according to Matthew Mayhood, Foothill teacher and SkillsUSA adviser.
“We had 26 students in SkillsUSA at Foothill last year,” Mayhood said. “We try to teach them leadership skills as well as job skills. We want them to do things to the best of their potential and not be afraid to work hard.”
Griffie, 16, and Wilson, 17, joined the organization last year after enrolling in Mayhood’s Web design class.
“We’ve both been doing Web design since middle school,” Wilson said. “I like it because you can build a product or service or idea and put it online so that people from all over the world can access it.”
The teens competed and received gold medals at the Nevada state SkillsUSA Leadership and Skills Conference in March at the Cashman Center, 850 Las Vegas Blvd. North. They were required to build a website from scratch in about four hours.
“They just handed us a flash drive filled with information from the (College of Southern Nevada’s) website,” Griffie said. “We then had to make our own site using the information we thought was necessary, and they judged us based off a few categories and our use of the information.”
In the national competition, Griffie and Wilson were required to build a similar website in eight hours for a hypothetical client using information they created.
Wilson said the teams were prohibited from using notes, the Internet and premade templates during both competitions.
“In the teams, there’s usually one programmer and one graphic designer,” Wilson said. “(Griffie) was in charge of the graphical interface and site aesthetics, whereas on my end, I was programming and putting together the website.”
Although they were nervous, the teens said they focused on doing their best and were proud of the work they submitted.
“We were hoping for silver or bronze, so when our names weren’t called, we kind of just hung our heads,” Griffie said. “Then they announced we won gold, and the whole Nevada section just jumped up and screamed. At the time, it was the first medal Nevada received, so everyone was really excited.”
Griffie and Wilson each received a $10,000 scholarship to The Art Institute of Las Vegas, a $2,500 scholarship to Ranken Technical College in Missouri and gift cards.
The duo’s accomplishment also secures them a bid to attend the WorldSkills International Conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, next year, according to Mayhood.
“Nevada gets a bad rap for having the worst education in the country, but we’re doing the best we can,” Mayhood said. “We’re a great school district and a great state, and this proves it.”
Griffie and Wilson are set to graduate from Foothill in 2015. They plan to attend college for Web design and computer science.
Foothill students Alec Rogers, Grace Yerman, Maddie Everly, Cade Purvis, Gage Bedell, Anthony Ficarro, Parker Gilbert, Anthony Friday, Teilia Tibbets, Tony Mehanna, Brytnee Avery, Jennifer Shepperd, Bailey Willis and Kai Urbanek also earned medals at the state championship.
For more information, visit nvskillsusa.org.
Contact Henderson View reporter Caitlyn Belcher at cbelcher@viewnews.com or 702-383-0403.
