GreatNews.Life Student Voices: The competition season has come to the ACC

What’s recently happened?

The Hammond Area Career Center (ACC) recently held the Regional Skills USA competition. The construction trades contest took place on January 31 and other categories such as culinary and cosmetology were held on February 7. 

“Honestly, it was a great experience where you can learn so much,” said Violet Cruz, a first-year student in the cosmetology course. “It was very nerve-racking at first, but at the end of day you’re just competing, and even if you lose you tried your best.”

For Skills USA, Cruz partook in hair styles and hair cuts where she had to do bangs, bunt cuts and short cuts. While she didn’t make it to State this year, Cruz plans to compete again next year.

Another student, Jorge Lopez, is a culinary student who placed third in his competition and plans to go all the way to Nationals. 

“This year’s Skills USA was more cramped than previous years because we had it here so space was limited,” said Lopez. “Despite that, we were able to overcome the challenges, and I ended up placing third. It was pretty fun.”

This is his second year competing. He didn’t make it to nationals last year, but he hopes that this year will be different.

What’s coming up?

Those who advanced to the Skills USA State competition are preparing for the next stage of the contest. Many students are revising and perfecting the skills needed to do well at the next level.

“It’s something that a majority of our students participate in. They either do Skills USA or HOSA, which is more for our medical courses,” said Gianna Mirowski, the childhood education instructor and the Skills USA coordinator for the ACC. “We do a kickoff at the beginning of the year detailing the competition and the network and experience opportunities it could offer the students.”

For the State competition, all competing students travel down to Indianapolis where they go against schools from all over Indiana that have their own Career and Technical Student Organization. 

“This is my first year as coordinator,” Mirowski said. “While it does add to my work load, I feel as though it’s helped me stay more organized and improved my collaboration with my coworkers in the building.”

The state competition is scheduled to take place on April 10-11, and if ACC students advance to Nationals, they will head to Atlanta, Georgia from June 1-7.

Staff spotlight:

Jack Velazquez Jr. is the culinary instructor at the ACC. Velazquez has been teaching for about seven years now. Before teaching, he worked at a restaurant in Highland called Beer Geeks. 

Velazquez heard about an open position at the ACC from his wife, which led to him beginning his teaching career.

“Originally, I didn’t know that I wanted to teach. At the time, however, I felt it was time to move on,” Velazquez said. “I was like, ‘Okay I’ll give it a try.’ It also offered a way for me to spend more time with my family.”

While he started with a passion for food, working with his students has driven Velazquez to inspire the youth. He hopes that his students have the best experience they can by the time they leave the ACC. He strives to give students an experience that makes them want to come back to class the next day.

“It’s more than what I expected it to be,” Velazquez said. “My students have taught me more about myself as well. They have taught me just about as much as I’ve taught them.”

In his free time, Velazquez enjoys spending time with his family. He is also very fond of movies.

Student spotlight:

Roman Lopez is a second year student in the Radio and TV program. Lopez decided to join the program following the end of his original program in the beginning of his first year. After hearing a friend detail what the class was about, he figured it was just right for him.

“When someone described it to me, it sounded like something I could do in the future,” Lopez said. “They said it was something fun that used computers and included editing, recording, and using your creativity.” 

Before the program, Lopez was enrolled in the IT course. At one point in time, he hoped to pursue IT as a career. However, he has recently decided to go the computer engineering route.

“I’ve always wanted to do something computer-related; it’s been an interest of mine for most of my life,” Lopez said. “I’ll definitely apply some of the things I’ve learned here to what I do in the future.”

After high school, Lopez plans to attend college at Purdue University Northwest, where he wants to major in computer science and minor in media.

In his free time, Lopez enjoys playing video games, reading and doing occasional crafts like crochet and origami.