The basics:

• NJ county vocational school students earned 17 SkillsUSA medals
• Six teams won gold at the national competition
• Mercer students won gold for their video game
• Passaic, Essex county students also earned gold in entrepreneurship, filmmaking

This year, New Jersey county vocational-technical school students earned 17 national SkillsUSA medals, six of them gold. These results are a testament to a high school learning environment that supports students in discovering and pursuing their passions. And they reflect the hard work and dedication of the winners themselves who have taken the tools provided throughout their education to build impressive resumes of work.

As a Career and Technical Student Organization, SkillsUSA challenges students to apply technical skills learned in the classroom in a competitive event. Competitions start regionally and then progress to the state and national levels.

To reach nationals is an accomplishment itself. To win gold at nationals is a statement. Gold-medal winners make a name for themselves as innovators, exceptional communicators and well-rounded leaders.

Turning a vision into reality

Among New Jersey’s 2026 gold medal winners are Peter Stout and Scott Turner, recent graduates of the Mercer County Technical Schools STEM Academy. The duo won in the Interactive Application and Video Game Development category; the same competition they took silver in last year.

The longtime childhood friends returned this year with determination, not only creating an entirely new game called Pyxis but also building a custom engine for the game to prevent glitches.

“It ran flawlessly every time,” said Stout, who developed the engine so the game could run on any operating system.

As the programmer and coder, Stout helped execute Turner’s creative vision for the game, which they modeled after Super Mario. However, in Pyxis, players go from start to finish by shifting their character’s color to move through obstacles of the same color. Doing so involves solving a series of puzzles.

I’ve been in education for 26 years, and I’ve never seen tenacity like this.
– Dave Nash, Work-Based Learning coordinator and SkillsUSA advisor for MCTS

Together, Stout and Turner spent about 800 hours of their own time developing the game, testing and refining it, and preparing their presentation for SkillsUSA competition.

“I’ve been in education for 26 years, and I’ve never seen tenacity like this,” said Dave Nash, Work-Based Learning coordinator and SkillsUSA advisor for MCTS.

For now, Stout and Turner have made Pyxis available for free to friends and family, but they have bigger plans for its future.

“We’re going to keep working to make it even better and then publish it and sell it to the public,” said Turner.

“I’ve never had a project I’ve been more passionate about,” added Stout. “SkillsUSA has been so much fun and has given us the opportunity to work together and get rewarded with both a game we are proud of and a gold medal.” Nash joked that Stout and Turner are the next “Jobs and Woz” and said the SkillsUSA experience has helped launch them into what he is sure is a future of fame.

Making the business work

Another gold medal team from Passaic County Technical-Vocational Schools demonstrated the same persistence as Stout and Turner, returning to compete in the category of Entrepreneurship after twice coming up short.

Team members Samiya Ahmed, Valeria Blas-Contreras, Fatima Jimenez and Abigail Martinez, all recent graduates of Passaic County Technical Institute’s business and global management program, assembled a winning business plan this year for a new language learning app called Bridge World.

“We developed the app with peers in information technology so we could demonstrate the concept, and that was something that really impressed the judges,” said Blas-Contreras. “We drew them in by going beyond the required business plan with a prototype, and they encouraged us to continue on.”

The project also stood out because it was deeply personal for the group.

“All of our families came here from different countries, so we all grew up bilingual,” explained Blas-Contreras. “Not all kids benefit from having the opportunity to learn multiple languages, so we wanted to personalize a language learning program for younger children.”

Putting skills to work

Jimenez added that it was also important for the group to incorporate lessons about the cultures that speak each language being taught.

With such a strong product to sell, Jimenez said that the group’s business plan needed to be just as strong.

“Over the years, we’ve learned through judges’ feedback and in our PCTI classes what goes into a business plan, including how to produce strong financial statements,” she added. “By senior year, we had those near-perfect.”

Martinez said the business skills she gained from SkillsUSA are already paying off as she helps her mother expand her decorating business, Soraya’s Dream Events. Although Martinez herself intends to become a teacher, she already understands how participating in SkillsUSA will benefit her in her chosen career.

“Over three years of participating in SkillsUSA, I grew as a person and developed strengths; I know I enjoy working with others and can excel at it,” she said.

An aspiring nurse, Ahmed agreed that the competencies she acquired as a SkillsUSA participant have prepared her for future success. “I am more confident, and I’ve boosted my communication and teamwork skills.”

Skills and a film

A gold medal team from Essex County Schools of Technology’s Donald M. Payne Tech also displayed exceptional teamwork but went beyond collaborating within the team. Students Malachi Bennett, Madison Johansson and Imoni Robertson, all rising senior digital filmmaking students, entered the SkillsUSA Career Pathways-Arts and Communication category with a film they produced for a client. They worked in partnership with Pastor Campbell Singleton III, and the Union Baptist Church in Montclair.

The film details a visit by Martin Luther King Jr. to Union Baptist Church to honor his friend, Rev. D.C. Rice, who was retiring as the church’s pastor. The final cut was shown during a live event to Union Baptist Church members.

“This was my first time working for a client, and it was rewarding to bring someone’s idea to life,” said Johansson. “The SkillsUSA judges gave us extra points for a project that was connected to the real world and will be used beyond the competition.”

Bennett said the quality of the film, especially the editing, garnered the team praise from judges as well. “They thought we were at least college juniors.”

Robertson noted that the finished product and the lessons learned along the way will serve the team well as each member intends to study film in college and pursue a career in the film industry. “We have experience now making a film, and that will help us as we look for other jobs and build a career,” she said.

The students’ digital filmmaking instructor, Anthony Perez, also served as one of their SkillsUSA advisors. He said the students’ work ethic in addition to their technical skills is what earned them gold. He noted how the time, thought and attention to detail they put in comes through in the finished film.

“I give full credit to them,” Perez added. “The students worked so hard and brought us home the first SkillsUSA gold in district history!”

Jackie Burke is executive director of the New Jersey Council of County Vocational-Technical Schools. Interested in becoming a business partner of a county vocational-technical school? Visit careertechnj.org/business-partners-of-the-year.