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Dallas, NC (July 1, 2026) – Gaston College students recently competed at the SkillsUSA National Championship competition in Atlanta, GA, and achieved a milestone first gold medal for Gaston College. The championships took place as part of the 61st SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference (NLSC), a massive showcase of career and technical education students. Over 19,000 attendees gathered for the event, where more than 7,000 state contest winners competed in 115 different hands-on trade, technical, and leadership contests.
Gaston College’s contestants demonstrated exceptional skill, bringing home four national medals and marking a historic milestone for the institution:
The students were supported by faculty advisors Kate Carmody, Allison Fraley, and Ron Key, who attended the trip to provide guidance and mentorship. During the competition, students worked against the clock and each other, proving their expertise in occupations like electronics, computer-aided drafting, precision machining, automotive, welding, medical assisting, cosmetology, and culinary arts.
“Participating in SkillsUSA is extra work and time for all involved, but seeing the students excel and build their confidence and skills is worth every minute,” said Lisa Albright-Jurs, Dean, Career and Technical Education. “The bond this group created was also very special to witness; they were truly each other’s biggest cheerleaders!”
All contests are run with the aid and support of industry, trade associations, and labor organizations, and test competencies are set by industry. In addition, leadership contestants demonstrated their skills in several Leadership Development competitions, which included both prepared and extemporaneous speaking, engaging in both individual and team presentations.
“We are incredibly proud of our students and teachers for embodying our slogan of being ‘Champions at work,’” said Paul Heidepriem, SkillsUSA North Carolina Executive Director. “Our teachers and instructors are ensuring that the Framework of Personal, Workplace & Technical Skills are developed in each classroom.”
Gaston College is grateful to the Bosch Community Foundation, the Gaston Community Foundation, and our own Gaston College Foundation for their incredible support of Gaston's SkillsUSA experiences.
As one of North Carolina’s largest community colleges, Gaston College is dedicated to providing flexible, high-quality and accessible learning opportunities that are relevant and responsive to diverse regional, community and student needs. Gaston College offers associate degrees, diplomas, and certificates, and provides an array of workforce and occupational training programs.
SkillsUSA is a nonprofit partnership of education and industry founded in 1965 as Vocational Industrial Clubs of America (V.I.C.A.) to strengthen our nation’s skilled workforce. Driven by employer demand, SkillsUSA helps students develop necessary personal and workplace skills along with technical skills grounded in academics. This SkillsUSA Framework empowers every student to succeed at work and in life, while helping to close the skills gap in which millions of positions go unfilled. Through SkillsUSA’s championships program and curricula, employers have ensured schools are teaching relevant technical skills, and with SkillsUSA’s new credentialing process, they can now assess how ready potential employees are for the job. SkillsUSA has hundreds of thousands of members nationwide in high schools, middle schools and colleges, covering over 140 trade, technical and skilled service occupations, and is recognized by the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor as integral to career and technical education. With the addition of our alumni, membership last year was over 440,000. SkillsUSA receives in-kind and financial support from more than 650 national partners. SkillsUSA has served more than 14 million members since 1965. For more information, go to SkillsUSA.org and SkillsUSAnc.org .
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