Nichols Career Center students head to SkillsUSA national competition

Several Nichols Career Center students qualified last weekend at the state SkillsUSA competition to compete at nationals in June - more Nichols students than ever before, according to Jefferson City Public Schools.

Eight Nichols students qualified to compete at Louisville, Kentucky, in late June - the most students Nichols has ever had qualify, said Mallory McGowin, JCPS communications and marketing specialist.

Those students include:

Jacob Scrivner, of Jefferson City High School, in culinary arts.

Makayla Buscher, of Fatima High School, in the category of graphic communications technical information within graphic communications.

Logan Chiles, of Blair Oaks High School, in the category of plumbing within heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

Christian Chavez, Matthew Beck, Colton Conway, Quinlan Kipphut and Kaleb Tuinstra, all in mechatronics. Conway attends New Bloomfield High School, and the other qualifiers in mechatronics are JCHS students.

Beck and Chavez make up a mechatronics team in additive manufacturing. Kipphut and Tuinstra are another mechatronics team, and Conway competed in electronic technology.

Mechatronics involves a variety of disciplines including 3-D printing, drafting, soldering, industrial applications and robotics.

This year was the debut of Nichols' culinary arts program at state competition, according to a tweet from the program last weekend.

Chiles and Tuinstra, both seniors this year, also qualified to compete at nationals last year.

SkillsUSA is a national organization serving trade, industrial, technical and health occupation students in public high schools, career and technical centers, and two-year colleges.

Full results of Nichols students at state competition at State Technical College of Missouri in Linn are available in Youth Notes on page B5 of the April 15, 2018 edition of the News Tribune.