Garrett Baumgartner of the GACTC won the gold medal in the Carpentry competition at the national SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference. Baumgartner was one of four GACTC students to participate in the national conference, which was held June 19-23 in Atlanta.

“Being able to say that I am the #1 high school carpentry student in the country is very cool. My co-op experience this year really helped me to work on my carpentry skills,” Baumgarter said. “None of this would be possible without my advisors and all of their support throughout all of my SkillsUSA competitions. SkillsUSA is a great organization that I would recommend to anyone because it helps you prepare for your career path.”

Details on all the students representing the GACTC are as follows:

  • Garrett Baumgartner, 12th grade, Carpentry, Altoona: Baumgartner placed first out of 44 competitors. This was his second time at Nationals, as last year he placed eighth.
  • Rebekah Dick, 11th grade, Baking and Pastry Arts, Hollidaysburg, competing in Prepared Speech: Dick placed seventh out of 42 competitors.
  • Madasin Garrison, 11th grade, Computer Programming, Altoona: Garrison placed 14th out of 26 competitors.
  • Daniel Kelley, 11th grade, Computer Programming, Altoona: Kelley attended as SkillsUSA Pennsylvania State Secretary, taking part in many team building exercises and representing Pennsylvania as an officer.

To qualify for the national competition, students had to have earned Gold Medals at the state SkillsUSA competition, which was held in Apr. 3-5 in Hershey.

SkillsUSA is a career and technical student organization serving more than 340,000 members every year enrolled in trade, technical, and skilled service training programs across the country. The national competition was attended by about 15,000 students, advisors, and administrators from career and technology schools across the nation, requiring more than 1.79 million square feet of competition and meeting space at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. More than $36 million from industry and education is invested in the event.

(Front row, left to right: Daniel Kelley, Rebekah Dick, Garrett Baumgartner; back row: Advisor Brian Kelley, Advisor Pam Kenawell, SkillsUSA Pennsylvania State Director Dodie Amigh, Madasin Garrison)