Teacher, two students headed to nationals
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

L-N Photo by Brenda Sommer State Winners Winners at the SkillsUSA state level from El Campo High School's career and technical education program are, from left: Jared Jahns, Miguel Marquez, Chris Pleasant, Justin Cook, Anthony Gaona, Marissa Delapena, Jonathan Saldana, Soto Panagiotopoulos, Caleb Fisher, Jose Hernandez, Patrick Johnson, Ernesto Pacheco, Luis Gallardo, Nicholas Gaona, Beatrice Carrizales, Juan Rojas and Ray Wilkerson. Pacheco and Fisher qualified for the national SkillsUSA competition this summer.

Larry Kuretsch's hard work in career and technical education has been recognized by his peers.

Kuretsch, who's taught career and technical education at El Campo High School for 20 years, has been named Region IV "Advisor of the Year" by SkillsUSA for the nine-state region that includes Texas.

SkillsUSA (formerly called VICA) is a national nonprofit organization serving teachers and high school and college students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations, including health occupations.

"It felt good," Kuretsch said. "Considering I had to go through district and state, it's wonderful. There may have been 50 of us in the state at one time, each state has the SkillsUSA contest, then they pick one from there and then they go to regional."

Kuretsch heads to the SkillsUSA 44th Annual National Leadership and Skills Conference held June 23-27 in Kansas City, Kan., where he will compete against the other four regional advisor winners for the national version of the award.

The Kansas event is the showcase for the best career and technical students in the nation. Contests begin locally and continue through the state and national levels.

But he won't be going alone: Two of his students placed high enough in state competition earlier this month to qualify for the national event.

They are Ernesto Pacheco, who won first place in notebook, fender repair and refinish, employment photo panel and automotive refinishing technology skills at state competition; and Caleb Fisher, who earned first place in notebook and third place in power equipment technology at the state event.

The multi-million dollar national event occupies a space equivalent to 16 football fields for more than 5,000 contestants in 93 separate events. Nearly 1,500 judges and contest organizers from labor and management make the national event possible.

The philosophy of the championships is to reward students for excellence, to involve industry in directly evaluating student performance and to keep training relevant to employers' needs.

Other El Campo High School winners in automotive technology at this year's state competition in Corpus Christi were:

• Beatrice Carrizales: first place in notebook and employment photo panel.

• Jared Jahns: first place in notebook, overhaul carburetor and employment photo panel.

• Luis Gallardo, Jose Hernandez and Soto Panagiotopoulos: first place in notebook and overhaul carburetor.

• Miguel Marquez: first place in notebook and overhaul alternator.

• Justin Cook, Marissa Delapena, Anthony Gaona, Nick Gaona, Patrick Johnson, Chris Pleasant, Juan Rojas, Jonathan Saldana and Ray Wilkerson: first place in notebook.