TSTC’s Breckenridge campus to be well represented at SkillsUSA
By Ben Barkley/TSTC
Texas State Technical College’s Breckenridge campus will be represented by eight students at the 2025 SkillsUSA Texas Postsecondary Leadership and Skills Conference April 2-5 in Corpus Christi.
SkillsUSA is a professional organization focused on employability, leadership and technical skills that help college students pursue successful careers and be part of a skilled workforce. It has more than 100 specific contests at the state and national events in which students can compete, from 3D Visualization and Animation to Welding Sculpture.
In the welding events at SkillsUSA, Osbaldo Pacheco, who is in his second semester of Welding Technology, will be teamed with Elijah Chisholm and Alejandro Franco for the Welding Fabrication event. Chisholm and Franco are Breckenridge High School students enrolled in TSTC’s dual credit program.
“We are getting to know each other, preparing for the event,” Pacheco said. “I decided to be part of SkillsUSA to see what potential I have in myself. I am proud to be representing Breckenridge at the state contest.”
Welding Fabrication requires a team of students to use their skills to build a designed project from provided materials.
Zachariah Henderson and Luke Holtman entered the Welding event. In that event, students will receive competition drawings and a set of welding procedure specifications that conform to the latest edition of American Welding Society standards.
“I have done many ag science competitions, so this comes naturally to me,” Henderson said. “I am planning to go and have fun. This is going to get me and a lot of people out of their shells.”
TSTC Vocational Nursing students, from left, Samantha Trevino, Kianna Womack and Erica Hernandez will represent the Breckenridge campus at the 2025 SkillsUSA Texas Postsecondary Leadership and Skills Conference next month in Corpus Christi. (Photo courtesy of TSTC)
Three Vocational Nursing students will also be among those in the competition. Erica Hernandez and Kianna Womack will compete in Nurse Assisting. Samantha Trevino entered the Medical Assisting event.
“I decided to be part of the SkillsUSA event because I am very competitive,” Hernandez said.
Womack said she will prepare for the event with Hernandez’s help.
“It is exciting to represent TSTC, and I look forward to working with Erica to make sure we are ready,” Womack said.
In Nurse Assisting, competitors will have to demonstrate knowledge and skill in performing personal care, encouraging patient independence and assisting with ambulation. Demonstration of standard infection control procedures used in basic nurse assisting will also be judged.
Trevino said she chose Medical Assisting for a simple reason.
“I have done a lot of that before, so I am more confident in that category,” she said.
Trevino will be judged on skill, speed, use of correct safety measures, and ability to interact personally with a patient. The competition consists of various stations associated with skills that might be found in an ambulatory medical office or clinic.
To learn more about TSTC, visit tstc.edu.
Cutline, top photo: TSTC welding instructor Jacob Gonzales, left, will accompany the Breckenridge SkillsUSA teams — including Elijah Chisholm, center, and Alejandro Franco, right — to the state competition next month in Corpus Christi. Chisholm and Franco are Breckenridge High School students enrolled in TSTC’s dual credit program. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
