Southeast Polk senior Brian MacKendrick and his teacher and Skills USA advisor, Phil Cronin, traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the Career and Technical Education National Symposium. This is an annual conference held to bring awareness and understanding to national leaders of the importance of career and technical education programs and their benefit to students.
MacKendrick was selected to attend this conference because of his leadership role in the state Skills USA organization. He was elected as the state president this past fall at the leadership conference held at Camp Dodge in Johnston. Three other student leaders and their advisors from the state were also selected for the Washington trip. These four students from Iowa were part of a group of only 10 students from across the country selected to participate in this national conference.
After two days of meetings and training, the delegation traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with the Iowa congressional delegation. Appointments were arranged at each office and students were given an opportunity to meet with each senator and representative to tell their stories of how career and technical education courses had benefited them in their high school or community college. Advisors also described how their organizations and schools benefit from the support of our national leaders in providing program funding.
“We were on the go constantly,” said Cronin, “attending meetings and hurrying from office-to-office, some several blocks apart, running to catch trains or cabs, operating on four or five hours of sleep each night; but the experience was well worth the effort. I feel we made a huge impact on the awareness level of CTE programs by our congressional leaders and their office staffs.”
“It was a great learning experience and a lot of fun,” said MacKendrick.