Barren County Schools students and teacher to travel to DC

BARREN COUNTY, Ky. – Barren County Schools will be represented in Washington, D.C. this Friday.

Barren County High School senior Taylor Strange, BCHS sophomore Trapper Vincent and Barren County Area Technology Center teacher Lonnie Vincent will travel to Washington, D.C. on Sept. 20 to attend the SkillsUSA Washington Leadership Training Institute, according to a release by Barren County Schools.

The district says during the visit, all three people will participate in leadership training and share their experiences with SkillsUSA and career and technical education.

They will also be able to meet with elected officials to advocate for increased funding for CTE programs, the release says.

Strange, KY SkillsUSA President and Barren County SkillsUSA secretary, said, “I believe highly in the importance of CTE programs. CTE programs in schools and clubs, such as SkillsUSA, will teach and prepare secondary and post-secondary students to improve and develop the quality of their personal and professional work. This will ultimately create endless opportunities for students to use a variety of skills to communicate and cooperate with industry professionals and future technical jobs. These opportunities can also create work-ready students who can perform straight out of school. CTE programs should be implemented and funded within all of Kentucky!”

SkillsUSA is a national organization that partners with students, teachers, and industry to ensure America has a skilled workforce.

Trapper Vincent, a BC SkillsUSA historian, also added commentary on the value of SkillsUSA.

Trapper Vincent said, “SkillsUSA introduced me to the CTE program of electricity. While learning and performing a variety of skills in the classroom, I have obtained the knowledge of how important CTE programs in schools can be. These programs provide students with skills that can proactively prepare them for industry and vocational jobs. While this not only makes students career ready, it allows students to be debt free through the opportunity of work-ready scholarships.”

Lonnie Vincent, BCATC electricity teacher and SkillsUSA lead advisor, said, “It’s an honor to represent our Barren County ATC SkillsUSA Chapter as well as KY SkillsUSA. I know this will be a great learning opportunity and experience for our SkillsUSA officers. We will be able to take what we learn from the training sessions and implement it in our local chapter to help maintain our gold chapter of distinction.”

Visit skillsusa.org/ to learn more.