Internships and Fridays @ Northeast present students an avenue to investigate a potential career.

Students in Clearwater and Orchard may also discover more about the world of work through an extra-curricular activity, SkillsUSA.

More than 20 students from the two schools are currently enrolled in SkillsUSA.

Chapter advisor Mike Odell, Clearwater, said, "SkillsUSA is a student organization that prepares its members for careers in occupations related to skilled services, trades, health services and technical services. Nationally, there are local chapters in all 50 states and territories (Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands.)

According to the Nebraska association's website, "More than 335,000 students and advisors join SkillsUSA annually."

In 2018, 2,785 members represented 87 Nebraska chapters.

Throughout the year, students prepare for competition ranging from 3-D visualization and animation to automotive service, drone technology to job skills demonstration, robotics to welding.

Each spring, chapter members attend the annual state conference, where they show lessons learned in leadership and integrity.

State winners advance to national competition, held in June, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Two local students have earned the top gold medal in the past two years.

Maddy Melcher, of Orchard, has represented the OC chapter and Nebraska at the top level for two years.

In 2018, Melcher competed in job skills demonstration for middle school students, where she earned the gold medal while showing how to to vaccinate cattle.

She competed at nationals in job skill demonstration, high school division, in 2019.

Clearwater's Faith King won the top national award in the middle school job demonstration category in 2019.

What made Melcher and King decide to join Skills?

"I wanted to join SkillsUSA because I knew that it was career-based and it would be another way to gain confidence in public speaking," Melcher said.

King believed participating in the extra-curricular would help her in the future.

"I wanted to join skills because I felt like it could help me become a better student, a more confident person and prepare me for my future career as a lawyer. I felt like it was a great opportunity that could help me become a leader and make me more confident in my future employment," King said.

While in Louisville, students mixed learning opportunities with fun side trips.

After checking in the first day, students learned about safety procedures and introduced themselves to other members.

King competed the next day and later, met the rest of the OC contingency for the opening ceremony.

Melcher competed on Wednesday. Afterward, the girls toured the Loisville Slugger factory and attended a SkillsUSA-sponsored evening at a baseball game.

At Churchill Downs, students met jockeys and toured the racetrack's museum.

Prior to Friday evening's award ceremony, SkillsUSA participants took part in a community project, building bikes for the boys' and girls' club.

Then, the ride home and planning for the new school year began.

King said SkillsUSA is an experience of a lifeitme.

"Skills offers so many opportunities to become yourself and to explore what you want to do. It helps you become a more confident, well-rounded person and meet so many new people."