WARREN, Ark. – Southeast Arkansas Community Based Education Center (SEACBEC) took 35 high school students from Warren, Hermitage, and Woodlawn to compete at the Arkansas SkillsUSA State Leadership Conference located in Hot Springs, Arkansas on April 15-17, 2024. SEACBEC had students competing from all five programs: Computer Science, Construction, Criminal Justice, Medical, and Welding. Students that compete must be members of the SkillsUSA student organization. Prior to the conference, all competitors had to take a knowledge based test and then competed based on their performance at state. With over 1,600 students competing at this year’s state conference, SEACBEC brought home medals in four competitions.
Top photo: Pictured: (L-R) SEACBEC Quiz Bowl Team: J’Ciana Strong, Everlyn Torres, Gabriel Richardson, Annette Escobedo, Taliyaha Walton, Sarah Villedo. All are Warren High School Juniors. Not pictured: Pauline Wylie, SEACBEC Medical Instructor and Quiz Bowl Sponsor.
medalist Race Frazer for Plumbing.
SEACBEC’s Construction program took participants in Carpentry, Carpentry Display, Electricity, and Plumbing to compete in Arkansas SkillsUSA competitions. SEACBEC brought home 1st place in Carpentry Display by Cristobal Guerrero, Junior at Hermitage High School and 3rd place in Plumbing by Race Frazer, Senior at Warren High School. Construction is sponsored by Jeremy Groves.
Carpentry Display competitors had to follow a set of blueprints and specific directions to build a finished product to take and display for judging. Guerrero was awarded a full tuition scholarship to the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton.
Plumbing competitors rough-in hot and cold-water lines with copper tubing and rough-in sanitary drainage, waste and vent lines with cast iron and PVC plastic for a water closet, a lavatory, a washer box and a floor drain. Water pipes are pressure tested on completed projects. Professional plumbers and pipefitters judge the competitors on accuracy, workmanship, proper selection and use of tools and supplies and proper safety procedures.
SEACBEC’s Criminal Justice program took a team to compete in Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) placing 2nd and earning silver medals. The purpose of the CSI competition is to evaluate a team’s ability to conduct a crime scene investigation. Students participated in work-based learning, and community training programs with law enforcement and public safety as an occupational objective to prepare for competition. Team members had to take a test assessing overall crime scene knowledge. During competition, they were timed on processing a crime scene to include searching, identifying evidence, measuring, photographing, and preparing a sketch. Team members also had to demonstrate basic crime scene skills such as lifting a fingerprint, swabbing serological evidence, packaging evidence, or similar skills. The team interpreted common crime scene evidence such as classifying a fingerprint pattern. Finally, the team completed narratives, crime logs, and processed paperwork. This is SEACBEC’s second consecutive year to medal Silver in CSI at the state contest.
SEACBEC won second place in the Quiz Bowl competition. Quiz Bowl tests a team of five to seven competitors on their ability to quickly respond to knowledge questions covering academics, current events and SkillsUSA professional development curriculum. Teams had to demonstrate communication skills, teamwork, problem solving and time-management skills by determining and presenting the answer to each question clearly within the five-second time frame. Besides competing in live rounds, each competitor takes two written tests: a written Quiz Bowl test covering general academic and current events issues and the national SkillsUSA Professional Development Test.