The Illinois Association of SkillsUSA conducted its annual Leadership and Skills Conference in Springfield from April 23 to 25.

More than 1,500 students participated and were supported by more than 300 business and industry, organized labor and educational professionals who supervised and judged the competitions and provided technical support.

Students from across the state participated in 17 leadership development contests, 56 technical, skilled and service occupations contests, six health contests, eight action skills contests for special needs students and six occupationally related contests.

The following Indian Valley Vocational Center students won awards in the top six places in the following events:

First place: Kayla Kitner, Sandwich, SkillsUSA scrapbook; Emily Prentice, Paw Paw, medical math.

Second place: Ava Godhardt, Hinckley-Big Rock, Tyler Reboletti, Yorkville, and Matthew Kimmey, Sandwich, crime scene investigation; Godhardt, Brittany Kubina, Sandwich, and Kelsie Zabel, Hinckley-Big Rock, promotional bulletin board; Samantha Paris, Sandwich, medical math.

Fourth place: Nick Flores, Plano, Crystal Rodriguez, Plano, and Alex Zarbock, Somonauk, crime scene investigation; Gerrod Mueller, Sandwich, architectural drafting; Jessica Lynn, Sandwich, medical math.

Fifth place: Samantha Woestman, Sandwich, preschool interactive bulletin board.

Sixth place: Crystal Rodriguez, technical spelling.

The following students in The Times cirucation area also represented IVVC at the State SkillsUSA Conference: Newark High School: Christopher Jeka; Sandwich High School: Derek Hall, Tim LaValla, Jeremiah Miller, Will Norman; Serena High School: Dakota Ford.

Anyone interested in learning more about SkillsUSA , financially supporting SkillsUSA, or scheduling a student presentation on SkillsUSA for their organization, contact Jane Wolf at IVVC, 815-786-9873 or visit the IVVC Web site at www.indianvalley.org for more information.