On Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, students in the Caribou Technology Center’s Criminal Justice program collaborated with the Caribou Fire Department to hold a 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb at the Caribou Community School.

The event began with an opening ceremony held outside by a tapestry of ladder trucks, American flags, and antique fire trucks. Among the crowd of community members and school district staff were first responders in full dress uniform, federal agents wearing ballistic vests, and students dressed in turnout gear. Special guests included Caribou Community School teacher Rodney Deschaine, who conducted the opening blessing; Civil Air Patrol for the Presentation of Colors, AJ Mierzwa, who sang the national anthem; Chief Brian Lajoie of the Caribou Fire Department, who made opening remarks; Boy Scout Troop 184, who did the flag-folding presentation; and community member Tammy Soucy, who played taps.

After the ceremony, the crowd moved inside the school, where the sound of recorded air traffic control transmissions played in the hallways, decorated with pictures from that horrifying day. The main staircase, covered in glowing lights, represented the climb that 9/11 first responders had to make to get to the top of the World Trade Center towers. On Wednesday, each Caribou participant clung to tags with the names of fallen heroes, as they began their trek up and down the staircase for the equivalent of 110 flights.

“Emotions were bittersweet, as we witnessed children, first responders, students, teachers, parents, and community members pay their tribute by climbing this staircase,” said Caribou Technology Center’s Criminal Justice program instructor Amanda Baker.

Criminal Justice students knew climbers would need help counting, so they created a system. At the base of the stairs was a table with a pool of rocks. Every time a climber completed five flights of stairs, they would take a rock. Once they earned 11 rocks, they knew their climb was complete.

Those who attended the ceremony recognized this event would not have been possible without the many hours of work the Caribou Technology Center’s Criminal Justice students dedicated to this class project.

“As their teacher, I’m so incredibly proud of their focus on details and the pride they demonstrated in the end product,” said Baker.  “They were professional as individuals and worked together as a team to make sure everything went as planned. I look forward to watching them thrive this school year.”

Caribou Technology Center provided information for this story. Complete the Maine DOE Good News submission form to submit good news from your school.

(Pictured: United Technology Center students [L to R] Dominic, John, and Joe attend SkillsUSA with homemade t-shirts rooting for their friend, Zach who is competing in the construction competition this year.)

The hallways of United Technologies Center (UTC) were packed with students dressed in different uniforms adorned with the SkillsUSA emblem on March 15 as they came together from across Maine to test their talents at Maine’s annual SkillsUSA event.

Competitions started on March 14th, the day before, and were happening in locations all over Bangor, as they do each year in the spring.

“I’m so nervous,” one student said to another as they climbed the steps to the second floor in search of their instructor and to find the site where their competition would soon start. Students come from Career and Technical Education (CTE) schools all over Maine, some even come the day before due to the distance they have to travel to participate. Many have been preparing for months and even years to take part in the event.

“You’ve got this!” an instructor said to another nervous student as they rushed by to get to another competition.

“I love it!” said Laura Manzo an instructor from Northern Penobscot Tech Region III in Lincoln. Manzo was sitting on a high stool in front of students working in teams of two in the TV/Video Production competition, something she had coordinated for the second year in a row this year. She said being the coordinator of a competition entails locating all of the judges, creating the prompt for the students to use for the event, and being there to run the competition. This year the prompt was to create a promotional video on Solar Eclipse Safety.

Northern Penobscot Tech Region III Instructor Laura Manzo sitting on a stool helping students who are competing in the TV/Video Production competition.

During the competition, Manzo was on hand answering questions and directing students as the 11 teams worked with cameras and other video equipment, in addition to computers with editing software, on planning, filming, narrating, editing, and putting together a video for the judges to view later that day. Their competition started at 6:45 am that morning and would last until 11:30 am. Manzo, in her 5th year of teaching at Northern Penobscot Tech, was excited about the lineup of judges this year but also nervous for the students who would need to film in the rain, an unexpected challenge the day brought.

“We will see what they come up with,” she said hopefully as she flashed a smile and continued answering questions from students and checking her clipboard.

Down the hall students, instructors, judges, and family members lined the halls looking through big picture windows as competitions started for everything from cake decorating to cosmetology, auto collision repair, and more.

SkillsUSA viewers watching competitions.

Cosmetology Competition

Animation Competition

Culinary Arts Competition

Health Knowledge Bowl Competition

Cake Decorating Competition

Construction Competition

Check out more footage from the event in this short video Maine DOE shared on Instagram.

To one end of a UTC hallway sat Rylee, a student at Hancock County Technical Center (HCTC), and Ally a student at Somerset County Technical Center (SCTC) waiting outside a competition room for their turn at the Basic Health Care Skills competition.

Rylee said she likes coming to SkillsUSA because it’s something different. “It’s definitely out of my comfort zone,” she said. She was smiling as she recalled how she was talked into coming last year and again this year.

For Ally, coming to Skills is about, “showing off my talent, showing off my skills, and making friends.” The two sat close together among other students clutching their posters and presentation materials, waiting to do a presentation in front of judges where they would also need to do an interview and showcase basic healthcare skills. They had no idea who among them would get called to go in next.

In addition to students in the traditional competition rooms were students wearing reflective vests that said “Courtesy Corp.” Lydia from Sanford Regional Technical Center, who was wearing one of these vests, explained that she was currently competing and had been since SkillsUSA started the day before. Courtesy Corp is a community service competition where students are tasked with helping patrons who come to watch the event. They are available throughout the event to help direct people and answer questions. Their competition ends after they help get audience members seated at the main ceremony which was set for later that night at the Cross Insurance Arena in Bangor.

At the top of the stairs was HCTC Law Enforcement student Mercedes with her team of 6 students (5 competitors and one alternative). They and the other teams were all wearing red coats and waiting outside of a conference room for their turn at the criminal justice quiz bowl. This was Mercedes’s team’s second year competing in this competition, and her team won gold last year.

“We studied, so it’s just a matter of rising to the challenge,” she said. Before Mercedes and her team got called into the competition room she shared that after she graduates, she plans to go to Thomas College and pursue their 4-year Criminal Justice Program with a concentration in Law Enforcement and hopes to one day work for the Maine State Police.

While UTC continued to bustle well past noon, other locations in the area were also hosting students at various competitions across the two-day event, like Fire Fighting, Diesel Equipment Technology, Entrepreneurship, Medical Math, and Early Childhood Education (and more) taking place at Eastern Maine Community College right next door. There were also many competitions at Cross Insurance Area where eventually everyone would end up later that evening.

Student Pin Design

Students’ T-Shirt Designs

Student Welding Sculpture

Starting the day before were a few special competitions for middle school students which also took place at Cross. Traditionally CTE programs, courses, and pathways are more widely available for high school-aged students and most of the students competing each year are in high school and college, but a growing number of middle schools are starting to offer career and technical education options as well.

Lamoine Consolidated School brought 50 students to compete at SkillsUSA this year, which is a record high for them. There were also students from Hancock Grammar School and Caribou Community School.

Middle school students had the opportunity to compete in State T-Shirt, State Pin Design, Team Engineering Challenge, Job Skill Demonstration, Woodworking Display, Community Service, Job Interview, Promotional Bulletin Board, Co2 Dragster, and 3D Printing.

A picture of the Middle School level Team Engineering Challenge in action

Middle School students from Lamoine Consolidated School take a group picture before they leave for SkillsUSA (image courtesy of Amanda Frost, LCS teacher and parent)

Lamoine Consolidated School teacher and 2023 Hancock County Teacher of the Year Miranda Engstrom, who helped coordinate one of the competitions this year, says that all the middle school students talked about having a great time and are already looking forward to next year’s competition.

“They all overcame challenges and feel more confident in themselves and their abilities to solve problems and explain solutions,” she said. As a fierce advocate for expanding career and technical education opportunities for middle school students, Engstrom adds that any other middle schools that want to be involved in SkillsUSA can reach out to their local technical school director, or reach out directly to Maine’s SkillsUSA Chapter.

When the competitions were completed and done, the students, instructors, administrators, parents, family members, and friends gathered at the Cross Insurance Area for the awards ceremony. Once the very large crowds of audience members were seated, Lydia and the rest of the Courtesy Corp competitors finally finished their competition as well, resting their green vests to also get seated for the ceremony. The ceremony entails top competitors being called up on stage and given gold, silver, and bronze metals, Olympic style standing on cascading platforms, and celebrated but one and all.

Middle School students accepting medals at SkillsUSA

The crowd at Cross Insurance Arena

Lamoine Consolidated School ended up with seven middle school students qualifying for the National Leadership and SkillsUSA Conference in the following competitions: Team Engineering Challenge, Promotional Bulletin Board, and State Pin Design. (Congratulations to Ian Frost, Jordan Chan, Benjamin Baldridge, Elza Cahn, Piper Smith, Kaia Tulloss, and Natalia Briggs!)

Mercedes and her team from the Hancock County Technical Center rose to the challenge as well by earning themselves a gold medal again this year in the Criminal Justice Bowl. As did Rylee from Hancock County Technical Center who ended up winning the silver medal in the Basic Health Care Skills competition. You can see a full listing of all the medal winners announced by SkillsUSA Maine here.

Congratulations to all of the winners, the many student competitors, as well as all of the people behind the scenes who work very hard to make this amazing event happen every year and who help prepare the students to compete.

Top winners of Maine’s SkillsUSA event will go on to compete at the national level in the SkillsUSA Conference in Atlanta, Georgia in June.

The Maine Department of Education, in collaboration with Career and Technical Education (CTE) schools throughout Maine, is celebrating CTE month this February by highlighting some of the amazing women who have found their path in life through career and technical education. We hope their stories inspire you the way they have inspired us. (Here are the other stories featured in February: Danica Wooster, Madison Jackson, Amanda Baker.)

Emma Koch is currently in her senior year at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford, Maine, and in her second year at Region 9 School of Applied Technology where she participates in the metal trades program. The two-year program combines the hands-on use of machine tools and equipment with different types of welding and fabrication of metals through lab exercises and a variety of projects.

“Originally I wanted to do lathe work and carving but they only had building construction which wasn’t what I was looking for,” explained Koch. Instead, she took a chance with metal trades to try their lathes and precision machining.

“Going into it, I was hoping to become proficient in machining but soon realized that was not for me, so I shifted to the other end of the shop where the welders were,” said Koch.

After a short time in the booth, she realized she had a natural knack and love for stick arc welding, and that love soon spread to TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) welding.

“It’s been fun to watch Emma become a welder,” said Region 9 Metal Trades Instructor Curtiss Hallock. “It didn’t take long for her to discover that machining was not for her – she was pretty clear about that by lunchtime of her first day of machining.  It really validated her innate talent as a welder.”

As the only female in her class, Koch explains that the trades have always been largely dominated by men, making them quite an intimidating environment for women to try and be a part of. Looking past all that, Koch explains that she was actually excited to get into welding because her Pepere was a welder, and both her brothers-in-law knew the craft as well. “I was excited to be able to show them up,” she added.

Koch continues to develop her craft and aspires to continue being a high achiever in her program. “Last year, I passed my flat stick welding test, and I am hoping to pass my vertical test this winter,” she said. Passing this test will give her American Welding Society (AWS) certification.

“She raises the bar for everybody in the shop,” added Hallock. “But many of her natural strengths are the ones that can be hard to learn:  focus, determination, and drive.  She’s really good at blocking out distractions.  She stays with a project until it’s done.  She’ll be an outstanding welder if she chooses to pursue that path, but if not those skills will make her successful no matter what she chooses to do.”

As for the future, Koch has yet to figure out exactly what she wants to do but she has a plan to get the process started. “I know I want to go to college,” she said. “I’ll be starting at Central Maine Community College in Auburn next year to play soccer and iron out my future plans.” Koch says she is planning on participating in the upcoming statewide Skills USA competition happening next month in Bangor. This is the first time Region 9 has participated since COVID.

“We are very proud of Emma for being open to trying new experiences which has helped her discover a passion for welding,” said Region 9 Director Brenda Gammon.

When asked what advice she had for current and future CTE students, especially young women, Koch said, “The most important thing is to hold your ground and be open to their advice and help, but don’t let them believe that ‘girly’ stereotype we are given; we are strong, we are powerful, and we can do the trades just as good as anyone.”