A team of Jacksonville High School students is headed to Kentucky later this month for the national SkillsUSA Championships, but there’s a friendly competition already underway from the workshop where the carpentry students work.

JHS carpentry teacher Kenny Kellum has taken teams to national competition three of the last five years. In 2011, the team took 22nd place; and last year the JHS team moved up to 12th out of the 52 teams that compete.

Team member Ginny Sartelle said they are all friends with last year’s team and there has been friendly banter over how well this year’s team will do.

“It’s not just a competition between 52 teams; we want to do even better than last year,” she said.

Kellum says the team has the ability to do just that. He said the team members have diverse backgrounds and skills but also have a shared confidence and desire to do well.

“They are going to Kentucky to represent North Carolina and that means a lot, especially to them,” Kellum said.

SkillsUSA is a nonprofit career and technical student organization that provides leadership and professional development for its members as well as opportunities for them to showcase their technical skills in over 95 different contest areas.

Read full article on the Jacksonville Daily News