HCC scores big at SkillsUSA national competition

Aug 3, 2023

The road to success led to Atlanta for five Houston Community College students who scored big at the 59th annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills conference in June.

The winning HCC teams competed in five categories: auto finishing, medical assistant, cybersecurity, 3D visualization and animation and computer programming.

Their performance “confirms that our education curriculum is high-quality and meets national standards,” said Solomon M. Zewde, Ph.D., faculty associate chair of computer networking at HCC. “It’s a confidence-builder for them to compete nationally and recognize that they have the skills and expertise to enter the job market.”

A gold medal in computer programming went to student Hung Bui; bronze medals were awarded to 3-D visualization and animation students Nicolas Heredia and Akmad Shakirov; cybersecurity students Debora Assis Pinto Sobrinho and Cherluk Sumdin came in sixth place; medical assisting student Marina Gutierrez Cardona scored fifth place; and auto finishing student Carlton Williams scored 16th out of 25.

Professor Zewde, who served as a student advisor, received a gold medal for his advising role in the Computer Programming competition and a bronze medal for the Visualization and Animation competition.

Other student advisors included instructors Gerardo Gomez, Patricia Pereira, Alberto Urbana and Hugh Mann.