Wallace State students win 26 medals at Alabama SkillsUSA competition

Hanceville, AL — Wallace State Community College brought home 26 medals from the 2024 Alabama State Leadership and SkillsUSA Championships held this week in Mobile, with two-thirds of those being gold medals in 12 of 18 categories.

Eighteen students earned gold medals during the competition, earning the opportunity to compete at the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference (NLSC) June 24-28 in Atlanta, Ga. Five students earned silver and three earned bronze.

“SkillsUSA is a great training ground for our students,” said Jerry Murks, Dean of Applied Technologies at Wallace State. “They take what they’ve learned in the classroom and lab and put that to test in competitions where they use critical thinking skills to adjust and change as needed. These are skills that they will take with them into the workforce and use in their chosen careers.”

Some of the winners from Wallace State Community College at the 2024 Alabama State Leadership and SkillsUSA Championships include from left Mason Parker, bronze in CNC 3-Axis Milling Programmer; Bradley Burden, gold in Carpentry; Jared Smith, gold in Related Technical Math; Logan Caldwell, gold in CNC Programmer; Samuel Wheeler, silver in CNC 2-Axis Turning.

Gold medal winners include:

• Carpentry – Bradley Burden or Hartselle
• CNC Programmer – Logan Caldwell of Cullman
• Commercial Drone – Hannah Watts of Jasper and Landon Holmes of Cullman
• Crime Scene Investigation – Braden Tuttle of Oneonta, Sophia Wright of Warrior and Jonathan Zepedatrejo of Cullman
• Criminal Justice – Kaiden Vandegriff of Remlap
• Diesel Equipment Technology – Zachary Rooker of Hanceville
• Esthetics – Kyndall Winters of Nauvoo
• Mobile Robotic Technology – Justin Ruth and Zach Hudson, both of Hanceville
• Related Technical Math – Jared Smith of Falkville
• Robotics and Automation Technology – Avielle Shadrick of Cullman and Andrew Cooper of Odenville
• Robotics: Urban Search and Rescue – Isaac Daniel of Holly Pond and Graham Gilbreath of Cullman
• Technical Computer Applications – Jennifer Jester of Cullman

Silver medal winners include:

• CNC 2-Axis Turning - Samuel Wheeler of Cullman
• Cyber Security – Zachary Teal of Oneonta and Clayton Kubler of Cullman
• Esthetics – Leslie Rushing of Crane Hill
• Job Skill Demonstration A – Ally Banks of Cullman

Bronze medal winners include:

• CNC 3-Axis Milling Programmer – Mason Parker of Cullman
• Customer Service – Davie Thomas of Cullman
• HVAC – Daniel Hostetler of Joppa

Registration for the summer and fall semesters is underway. Summer classes begin May 22 and fall classes begin Aug. 19. For more information visit www.wallacestate.edu, call Lion Central at 256.352.8236 or come by the Hanceville or Oneonta campus centers. Students may schedule advising sessions with the Center for Student Success at www.wallacestate.edu/advising. 

Wallace State student Bradley Burden or Hartselle competes in the Carpentry competition at the 2024 Alabama State Leadership and SkillsUSA Championships, in which he won a gold medal.

The Crime Scene Investigation team from Wallace State Community College earned a gold medal at the 2024 Alabama State Leadership and SkillsUSA Championships. Pictured from left are Jonathan Zepedatrejo, Braden Tuttle, instructor Thea Hall and Sophia Wright.

Wallace State Criminal Justice student Kaiden Vandegriff, right, and instructor Brandi Parker celebrate the gold medal Vandegriff earned in Criminal Justice at the 2024 Alabama State Leadership and SkillsUSA Championships.