The Engineering Design Technology team will be advancing to Nationals. Their unique prosthetic hand for a little boy stood out in the competition.

“There was definitely dedication and hard work. We put in 20 hours a week in some cases for this project,” Bell said. “We were doing [the hand project] entirely for charity, where the other projects and other groups were profit motivated.”

The team is working hard to better the hand not only for the competition but to better fit the little boy, Zaxton, as well. The team plans to give the hand to Zaxton soon so he can use it in his everyday life.

“We have five designs of the hand so far,” Ostrander said. “The next design we are going to give to Zaxton, he’ll take it home for about two weeks and see how he likes it. If he does like it, what we were thinking about doing is getting his favorite superhero’s logo and putting the logo on top of the hand.”

Other Skills USA winners include:

Cosmetology

1st place Men Haircutting – senior Laura Fairbanks

Superior Rating -1st place in projects – seniors Mary Hudgins, Chloe Laird, Laura Fairbanks

Electrical Trades

4th Place Electrical Construction Wiring – senior Rogelio Morales

Project Team 1 – seniors Rogelio Morales and Erbey Ruiz – 91 on project

Project Team 2 – seniors Joel Alonso, Jose Ponce, & Ernesto Tonche – 90 on project

Project Team 3 – sophomores Cody Welty and Nick Patek – 95 on project

Project Team 4 – junior Abraham Mateo – 95 on project

Robotics/Architectural Design

1st place and advancing to Nationals – Engineering Design Technology team of juniors James Bell, Jacob Ostrander, and Lexi Wilson for their prosthetic hand