Killeen ISD Career Center students delivered an outstanding performance at this weekend’s SkillsUSA District 10 Competition, earning top honors across multiple events and showcasing the exceptional talent, dedication, and real-world skills being developed through Career and Technical Education programs.
With numerous gold medal finishes and multiple teams advancing to the state competition in Corpus Christi this April, the Career Center continues to demonstrate its commitment to preparing students for college, career, and military success.
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/killeenisd/albums/72177720332213719
Students in the Audio/Video Production program led the way, earning an impressive eight gold medals across highly competitive categories, including Digital Cinema Production, TV Production, TV News Production, and the A/V Quiz Bowl.
Top honors included:
Digital Cinema Production (Gold): Miley Surdam, J’Olani Pharmin-Sarrosa
TV News Production (Gold): Shelby Castillo, Ricky Brown, Rihanna Hosang, David Burke
TV Commercial Production (Gold): Eliel Santiago, Jay’Dyn Bradley
A/V Quiz Bowl (Gold): J’Olani Pharmin-Sarrosa, Eliel Santiago, Miley Surdam, Ricky Brown, David Burke, Rihanna Hosang, Shelby Castillo
SkillsUSA is a national nonprofit workforce development organization that empowers students in more than 130 occupational areas through competitions, leadership training, and industry partnerships. The organization provides a platform for students to demonstrate both technical expertise and employability skills aligned with workforce expectations.
For many students, the competition experience was both challenging and rewarding.
Rihanna Hosang, a senior and floor manager for the TV News Production team, shared that earning gold was especially meaningful. “It was exciting, especially since we were up against so many other teams this year,” she said.
In her role, Hosang coordinated live production elements, including cueing anchors, operating the teleprompter, and assisting with scriptwriting. She credited her previous experience with campus news production as key preparation. As the team looks ahead to state, their focus is on refining scripts, meeting deadlines, and perfecting on-air delivery.
In Architectural Design, a large group of Career Center students earned recognition for their work in the Architectural Design Portfolio competition. This event challenges students to design and present a complete, original architectural project, demonstrating their understanding of design principles, functionality, and real-world building constraints.
Participants develop professional technical drawings, written documentation, and models, culminating in a comprehensive portfolio and formal presentation to judges.
Students recognized include:
Adkinson, Da’Nieya; Fernandez, Katiya; Glanton, Stephaun; Hiley, Monyetta; Johnson, Peyton; Jones, Devyn; Loney, Jordan; Martin, Jada; Martinez, Yobani; Mikell, Rayne; Orduna, Juan; Reaves, Kimora; Redmond, Christian; Snead-Brown, Ke’Andre; Townsend, Michelle; Valentine, Oshanna; Vazquez, Elvis; Williams, Layla.
In skilled trades competitions, Career Center students demonstrated precision, craftsmanship, and technical knowledge aligned to industry standards.
The Masonry and Plumbing contests required students to apply hands-on skills such as blueprint interpretation, construction techniques, system installation, and adherence to safety protocols.
Plumbing: Jordan Wylie — Silver (2nd Place)
Masonry: Iziah Howard — Gold (1st Place); Gwenavyre Bowker — Bronze (3rd Place); Dae’Shaun Ivy
Students from Mr. Griffin’s Digital Audio program also earned top recognition in the Audio Production competition. Participants were tasked with producing a professional three-minute audio package that included a radio news report and a commercial, evaluated on quality, creativity, and industry standards.
Gold (1st Place): Isabella Cuellar and Gracie Caves-Angel
Bronze (3rd Place): Giovanni Albert and Russell Harmon
The first-place team’s production stood out for its strong storytelling, seamless transitions, and polished delivery, earning them advancement to the state competition. The success of these students reflects the program’s emphasis on real-world application, including news writing, voice performance, and audio editing.
In Robotics, the Search and Rescue team of David Arsenault and Elisha Ringgold earned 3rd place. This event challenges students to design, build, and program a robot capable of navigating a simulated disaster environment to locate and retrieve objects, mirroring real-world emergency response scenarios.
Teams are evaluated on engineering design, programming, problem-solving, and their ability to adapt to complex challenges under time constraints.
The collective success of Killeen ISD Career Center students at the district level highlights the strength of its CTE programs and the dedication of both students and instructors.
Through hands-on learning, industry-aligned curriculum, and competitive experiences like SkillsUSA, students are not only gaining technical expertise but also developing the leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills necessary for future success.
As these talented students prepare to compete at the Texas SkillsUSA State Leadership and Skills Conference in Corpus Christi this April, they carry with them the pride of Killeen ISD and the promise of continued excellence.
A big thanks to Charlotte Heinze for compiling this information and for Mike Bartoszek for some fabulous images. Best of luck to our talented students moving on to state competition in April.