Students place in national SkillsUSA competition

Eastern Center for Arts and Technology (EASTERN) 2021 Culinary Arts and Upper Dublin High School graduate, Benjamin Hoffman, and Commercial Art and Abington Senior High School junior, Nicole Klaski, competed in the SkillsUSA National Competition held virtually June 21-24, 2021. The national competition is a showcase of career and technical education students in areas of technical skills and leadership. EASTERN is proud to announce that both EASTERN students placed in the top nine for their competitions, and Nicole Klaski received second place in the nation.

Benjamin Hoffman participated in the Action Skills competition. This contest requires a 5 to 7 minute demonstration of an occupational skill in an area in which a student is training. Contestants use examples, experiments, displays or practical operations to clearly explain their skills using contestant-prepared visual aids.

For the Action Skills competition, Benjamin needed to demonstrate a skill from his technical field (Culinary Arts) in a 5-7-minute video – in one-take. He chose to demonstrate how to make a fried cod sandwich. Although somewhat stressful, Benjamin enjoyed being part of the competition. He left the competition with more confidence in himself and his presentation skills.

Nicole Klaski participated in the Customer Service competition. This contest evaluates students’ proficiency in providing customer service. The contest involves live, role-playing situations. Contestants demonstrate their ability to perform customer service in both written and oral forms including telephone and computer skills, communications, problem solving, conflict resolution and business etiquette.

For the Customer Service competition, Nicole had to accommodate five hotel customers in 15 minutes with five different scenarios. The goal was to ensure that each customer felt happy with their interactions and satisfied with their hotel experience. Through this experience, Nicole learned that tackling issues one step at a time and evaluating each situation is very important, especially when repeat customers is the goal. She feels as though her experiences in this year’s SkillsUSA competitions has allowed her to grow her customer service skills.