ON BOCES students bring home medals from National SkillsUSA

Submitted by Lisa Bielmeier

Orleans/Niagara BOCES Public Relations Director

Orleans/Niagara BOCES could not be prouder of all of their students who competed at the National SkillsUSA Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta. More than 6,500 outstanding career and technical education students – all contest winners – competed in 108 different trade, technical and leadership fields.

Four students from the Niagara Career and Technical Education Center brought home gold medals, and one student from the Orleans Career and Technical Education Center brought home a silver medal.

Gold medal winners include: Caleb Poeller (Christian Academy), Liam Robinson (Lewiston-Porter) and Alvaro Altolaguirre (Christian Academy) in the eng. tech/design team competition. The students are in Scott Brauer’s project-based engineering program at the Niagara Career and Technical Education Center.

Gold medal winner Travis Franke (Starpoint) was in the industrial motor controls competition. He is a student of Bob Fritton and Logan Spain in the electricity/electronics program at the Niagara Career and Technical Education Center.

Silver medal winner Zachary Luick (Lockport) was in the electronics technology competition. Zach is a student of Bill Leggett’s electricity/electronics program at the Orleans Career and Technical Education Center.

The students competed against the state champions from all over the country, and three U.S. territories.

From left: teacher Logan Spain, Travis Franke (Starpoint) and teacher Bob Fritton.

Teacher Bill Leggett with Zachary Luick and the silver medal.