Students eligible to test skills at national championships in June
On April 5, Somerset County Vocational and Technical High School students competed against other career and technical education students at the New Jersey SkillsUSA Championships.
Out of the 105 SCVTHS students who competed, 57 received medals, including 25 gold. Gold medal winners are now eligible to test their skills in Kansas City from June 23-27 at the 50th annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference.
More than 6,000 career and technical education students will compete in 99 trade, technical and leadership fields. Contests are run with help from industry, trade associations and labor groups.
SCVTHS students who received gold medals are:
• Career Pathways (Agricultural, Food & Natural Resources) — Apurva Swapnil (Hillsborough), Abhishek Shrinet (South Bound Brook) and Shawn Young (Martinsville).
• Custom Automotive Painting — Alexandra Santa Maria (Hillsborough) and Edgar Ceja (South Bound Brook).
• Career Pathways (Human Services) — Geneva Magsino (Raritan), Saloni Lad (Princeton) and Karen Huang (Martinsville).
• Career Pathways (Manufacturing) — Mitali Shah (Hillsborough), Claire Foster (Flemington) and Alina Lou (Hillsborough).
• Medical Math — Jonathan Garaffa (Skillman).
• Quiz Bowl – Daniel Marcinek (captain, Green Brook), Madeline Kestenbaum (Branchburg), Katie Furman (Flemington), Soham Shah (Hillsborough), Noah Alsamadisi (Bridgewater), Jean-Pierre Jacob (alternate, North Plainfield) and Sarah Furman (alternate, Flemington).
• Welding — Anthony Gallerani (Princeton).
Gaining silver medals were:
• Career Pathways (Health Science) — Shanaya Shah (Hillsborough), Alexander Shu (Somerset) and Matthew Calapatia (Hillsborough).
• Medical Math — Andrew Kerrigan (Hillsborough).
• Career Pathways (Science, Technology & Math) — Suraj Patel (Somerville), Samyak Gupta (Flemington) and Rohit Rustagi (Hillsborough).

