TURNERS FALLS — For Franklin County Technical School Welding & Metal Fabrication student Levi Clark and instructor John Passiglia, participating in the national SkillsUSA competition was both a learning experience and a testament to Clark’s efforts, bringing Franklin Tech back to nationals for the first time in more than a decade.
Clark, a Heath resident, was eligible for the national competition after winning first place in Welding Sculpture at the state-level competition in Marlborough in May, which saw the district’s SkillsUSA chapter win the Chapter Excellence Program award. This was the first time since 2011 that a Franklin Tech student has gone to the nationals, and Clark ultimately scored within the top 20 at the national competition.
“I was pretty excited,” Clark said about getting to the national competition. “[I’m] the first one in however long — that’s pretty cool.”
The SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference took place between June 1 and June 5 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. SkillsUSA is the top workforce development organization that represents more than 444,000 career and technical education students and teachers nationwide, according to its website. The national conference annually brings together champions from all 50 states, with more than 6,800 competitors participating in 115 different competitions.
Clark was the sole Massachusetts competitor in the Welding Sculpture competition. A total of 350 students from Massachusetts competed at the national conference across the various competitions that fall under the Leadership, Occupationally-Related, or Skilled and Technical categories.
According to the SkillsUSA Welding Sculpture competition description, students design and produce their own welded sculpture that also comes with a portfolio that documents the process. The sculptures are displayed at the national competition for evaluation, and the competitors are interviewed to explain the sculpture-building process. Additionally, the competitors must demonstrate competency in using welding and cutting equipment as part of the competition, outside of just their sculptures.
Getting to nationals
Getting to the national level isn’t an easy feat, as both Clark and Passiglia explained.
For the district competitions, schools in Massachusetts are broken into six districts, with Franklin Tech one of 12 schools in District 6. Passiglia said he can take a certain number of students per vocational program, and he wants to take a combination of students who are new to SkillsUSA and students who have competed before.
“In order to get to the state level, you need to beat everybody else around you, so Smith Voke, or McCann, or Chicopee Comp,” Passiglia explained. “Basically all western Mass.”
The sculpture Clark competed with for both the state and national competitions is called “Man’s Best Friend.” It took 99 hours to complete and it depicts his two hounds, running down a dirt road and chasing a pheasant out from the bushes. He was able to complete this sculpture despite a busy schedule that includes playing on the baseball team, which meant working on his project during the school’s evening hours, or at his at-home shop.
Clark said many of his competitors at nationals brought similar nature or landscape concepts, with the first-place and third-place sculptures using similar welding methods. He said this gave him some “reassurance,” knowing the top sculptures weren’t far off in technique.
“I think one of the things about Levi’s that everybody noticed was the technical skill,” Passiglia said about the feedback on Clark’s sculpture. “The technical ability was super strong, and the people really like just the concept of it.”
This technical skill is something Passiglia said he stresses for his students, and has created a “niche” in the Welding Sculpture competition for Franklin Tech students. He said his personal background in blacksmithing and sculpture comes into play in his teaching, and he tries to teach the fundamentals of sculpture so students, like Clark, feel “empowered” to know how to produce a sculpture from a technical perspective.
A learning experience
Since this was a first for both Clark and Passiglia, both said heading to nationals was an opportunity to learn about what judges are looking for at the national level, as well as to learn from other competitors and make connections with people from across the U.S.
As the advisor for SkillsUSA for Franklin Tech, Passiglia said talking to the judges at the national level helped give him some perspective on what they are looking for, which he can use to help guide students heading into next year’s competition.
As for making connections, Passiglia mentioned how he and Clark could be in an elevator at the convention center and run into people from New Mexico or Nebraska, and the sentiments across the board were of pride to just be at nationals.
“People were just happy to be there, to make it to the big show, and when you walk around it, it’s not so much a competition as it’s like a big art show,” he said. “Everybody there is a winner.”
Clark said he hopes to return to nationals again, but he doesn’t want to underestimate the difficulty of placing at the top for the district and state competitions. After competing at nationals, the rising senior said he’s come away with an important perspective as he heads into his final year at Franklin Tech.
“If you want to come out at higher-quality work,” he said, “you’ve really got to work for it was my biggest thing.”
