Dunwoody students performed well again this year in the SkillsUSA Minnesota Contest held last weekend at various locations in the Twin Cities, including the Dunwoody campus.

The Collision students, advised by Bruce Graffunder and Bob Brandon, made a complete sweep of the awards, taking first through fourth place in the contest. Kevin Wendt advised two teams for the Web Design contest, and they placed first and second.

Overall, 16 Dunwoody students competed in seven contests, including Collision, Automotive Refinishing, HVAC, Computer Programming, Computer Maintenance, Web Design, and Internetworking.  The students medaled in five of the contests with three in first place, two in second place, three in third place, and two in fourth place.  The full results are:

Collision Repair– Advisors: Bruce Graffunder and Bob Brandon

1^st: Erik Campion

2^nd: Trevor Multhaup

3^rd: Huey Lewis

4^th: Andy LaRue

Internetworking – Advisors: Rob Bentz and Dave Mansheffer

1^st: Donald Geer

Computer Web Design –Advisor: Kevin Wendt

1^st Place Team:  Joe Packer and Brett Lidfors

2^nd Place Team:  Martin Sheeks and Brady Skaurad

Automotive Refinishing – Advisors: Bruce Graffunder and Bob Brandon

3^rd: Erik Campion

4^th: Huey Lewis

Computer Maintenance – Advisor: Dave Mansheffer

3^rd: Lee Reiners

The first place winners are eligible to compete at the national SkillsUSA competition in Kansas City, Mo., June 24–28.

Kevin Wendt and Bruce Graffunder will be attending the national competition as advisors for the contests.  Four Dunwoody faculty members are going to the national competition to judge: Lonny Lunn and Dave Duval for the Automotive competition, Heather Gay for the Teamworks competition, and Polly Friendshuh for the Electrical Construction Wiring competition.

For more information about SkillsUSA Minnesota, visit www.mnskillsusa.org.

SkillsUSA Minnesota is part of a national organization that serves over a quarter million student members annually, organized into more than 14,700 chapters and 54 state and territorial associations (including Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands). The Minnesota Association has offered leadership opportunities to over 200,000 student members since 1967, with a current annual membership of over 3,000. There are chapters in 29 technical colleges and 50 high schools or cooperative centers, with potential to serve many more. SkillsUSA is governed by a Board of Directors, elected from teachers that advise local chapters, and representing both the high school and college divisions and industry representatives. All programs are offered as integral to the curriculum.

The "Whole-in-One" -- the Dunwoody team's entry for the Phoenix Challenge

A team of four students from the Design & Graphics Technology department will be competing this weekend in the Phoenix Challenge, the Flexographic Technical Association’s annual product design and printing competition for colleges and universities that provide training in flexographic printing.

The competition will take place April 30 in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is the culmination of months of hard work to conceive, design, market, and print an original product using flexographic printing technology.

This year’s challenge was to create a promotional product for a golf fund-raising event. Dunwoody’s team created the Whole-In-One (pictured above) and have been working since last summer to prepare for the competition. The students who will be representing the entire team at the Phoenix Challenge are: Matt Christianson, Mitch Hanson, Mary Johnson and DJ Rickerd. They will not only be submitting the final products for judging but also giving a presentation before the judges on the processes they used to develop and print the product.

Instructors Shawn Oetjen and Tom Herold will also represent Dunwoody at the Phoenix Challenge. Dunwoody took first place at last year’s competition.