A senior from Woodland High School will move onto the national SkillsUSA championships after securing a win at the state competition.
Caleb Mouat won in the categories of prepared speech and extemporaneous speech.
Mouat first joined SkillsUSA after seeing students practice for the restaurant service category. He scoured the list and one category caught his eye: public speaking. Mouat’s interest may be daunting to others, but to him, it’s empowering.
“I’ve been involved in drama my entire life, and I love using my voice to present material and keep a room interested,” he said. “While high school provides you with a lot of experiences, I feel SkillsUSA picks up where high school stops by offering you the opportunity to interact with students both from other schools in the state but also on a national level. You get to meet new people who share interests with you and make friends with people from all over the country.”
Mouat will join the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program when he starts at University of Idaho in the fall.
Two other students from Woodland also competed in the state SkillsUSA competition. Sophomore Caitlin Nelson competed in the tournament in the American Sign Language (ASL) category, and Oliver Rosas, a senior, competed in the technical drafting category. The competitions were held virtually due to COVID-19.
SkillsUSA, a national extracurricular program, offers high school students the opportunity to compete in 100 different categories of workplace skills. Categories fall into one of three criteria considered essential for a successful career: technical, workplace and personal skills.
The number of students from a region who can advance to the state competition varies between categories, stated a news release, with most categories only taking three. The release from the school district said sending students to state in three separate categories shows the excellence of the Woodland High School team, despite being faced with an especially challenging season.
“I am so proud of all three for sticking it out through all of the ups and downs of virtual competition,” said Kimberly Miller, career and technical education teacher at Woodland High School and adviser for the SkillsUSA team. “They are all champions to me.”
