Ten Mount Pleasant High School Electrical Technology students competed in the SkillsUSA District competition on February 25-26 at Texas State Technical College in Waco. All ten advanced to the Texas SkillsUSA State competition in Corpus Christi to be held March 31-April 3, 2022.

In the Construction Wiring competition, MPHS swept the top three spots with Jair Moreno placing 1st, Christian Jaimes placing 2nd, and Miguel Banda coming in 3rd. For this contest, the students were given a written electrical exam.

In the National Electric Code Testing event, Alejandro Nava placed 1st. For this contest, students are evaluated on their ability to apply and/or reference the appropriate National Electrical Code chapters, articles, and calculations.

In the Commercial Electrical Exhibit competition, the team of Gabriel Acuna, Eric Perez, Sahir Ramirez, and Carlos Valdez scored 199 out of a possible 200 points to earn a blue ribbon and advance to state. The students installed a sub-panel and ran branch circuits to a variety of devices using conduit. The exhibit must have a notebook that contains the electrical working drawings, detailed description of work done by the students in paragraph form, a write-up with a list of materials, current receipts, any materials donated, steps followed in completing the exhibit, and the students’ resumes. The exhibit must meet the industry standard for creativity and neatness and is judged on the degree of difficulty and must comply with the 2020 National Electrical Code.

And in the Innovative Job Exhibit category, the team of Christopher Bello and Amelin Cardenas scored 197 out of a possible 200 points to win a blue ribbon and advance to state. Bello and Cardenas used old recycled components to build a motion detecting arcade game machine. The motion detecting sensor will automatically shut

down the arcade machine when not in use and will preserve energy use. Innovative job exhibits are ground-breaking, pioneering, original, introducing something new, a new way of doing something or the act of inventing.

“These students put in a lot of extra time and worked very hard to get ready for competition and I am thrilled that so many are going to State,” said Tim Davis, MPHS Electrical Technology instructor and SkillsUSA Advisor. “They are now focusing on preparing to compete at State against students from across Texas, including students from Career Tech magnet schools. I know they will be great representatives of MPISD and the Mount Pleasant community.”

Pictured

1. (L to R) Christian Jaimes, Miguel Banda, Jair Moreno, Alejandro Nava

2. (L to R) Eric Perez, Sahir Ramirez, Carlos Valdez, Gabriel Acuna, Jr.

3. (L to R) Christopher Bello and Amelin Cardenas