Several J.Z. George students have the opportunity to compete on the national level of the SkillsUSA competition, which will take place June 24 through the 29 in Louisville, Ky. Alex Zuniga, Patrick Roy and Gustavo Flores will compete against other teams through the 50 states during the competition. Jeff Fulgham, construction trades teacher at J.Z. George High School said the team’s chapter display took first at state.
“It helps students learn more about SkillsUSA and what the organization does,” he said.
Fulgham said Zuniga, Roy, Flores and six other students, himself and another adult chaperone will attend the conference. Even though the other students aren’t competing, he wants to expose them to things beyond Carroll County.
“They have classes on how your school can run and grow their SkillsUSA class and I want them to be a part of it,” Fulgham said. The only issue is, the funding. Fulgham said the class doesn’t receive funding from the school district so funding is completely out of pocket for anything they do.
“For us to take nine kids and two adults, it is $4,000 and that’s just for hotel rooms and registration. There’s also travel and we have to take the project up there. So, we’ll probably have to rent a UHaul and that’s another couple of thousand,” he said.
Fulgham said students have been working hard to raise the money to attend the conference next month. The students recently built a bar area and the top of it was made out of pennies. He said the bar area was purchased by the owner of United Rentals.
“That helped us out a bunch,” he said. Fulgham said students have also received donations from Cannon Motors, the J.Z. George High School PTO, R J Construction and many others. But, they’re still needing help. The students have also started a GoFundMe page in order to help raise the money for the competition.
“Anything that anyone can give us will help,” he said. Anyone who wants to donate can contact Fulgham at 662-809-1368 or jfulgham@ccsd.ms
“They can call me, text me, e-mail me. Anything to help the kids will be appreciated,” Fulgham said.
