Don Robinette does a lot of yelling at the Monongalia County Technical Education Center during the course of the academic year.
Not that the welding instructor is angry, mind you.
It’s just that learning gets a little loud in his classroom — what with all those clangs, rattles and chonks.
The space Robinette and his students occupy at the facility on Mississippi Street is just as much a working shop floor as it is a learning lab.
That’s how the deal gets done at MTEC.
On Thursday afternoon, though, he was reveling in the quiet of a job well done.
MTEC students just returned from the SkillsUSA competition in Atlanta, where they lined up against their career technical education counterparts across the U.S. — and came away with some top showings for their efforts.
“I’m proud of ‘em,” he said. “I’m always proud of them. They do good work.”
Upper-echelon work in the case of SkillsUSA, he said, which is the national benchmark for scholarship and competency in career technical education.
MTEC’s Crime Scene Investigation Team consisting of Allison Callahan, Emma Snyder and Liana Martin finished fourth in the nation during SkillsUSA’s competition.
Owen Sorenson, who also learned the art of welding-sculpture in Robinette’s classroom, also finished fourth in the country in his category.
Lynae Davenport, Libby Bozic, London Dinkins and Enrique Leon of the Morgantown school finished sixth in the nation in Atlanta for their effort in the Entrepreneurship division.
“Effort” is the watchword at MTEC, Robinette said.
Its students learn how to bake a cherry pie or operate a plasma cutter.
They can run a restaurant or write computer code — while digging into the particulars and practices from health care to home construction.
And, the welding instructor said, they know how to assemble an effective resume and good first impression in the job interview.
MTEC completers have been known to come directly from the job site to their commencement ceremonies, because they’ve already been hired and are working.
“We give them the guidelines and the basic framework and then they do all the rest,” said Robinette, who accompanied the students to Atlanta along with other instructors.
“It’s really something to see them on the big stage,” he said. “They put in the work and it shows.”
Statewide, a total of 151 students in career technical education from across West Virginia were in Atlanta for the SkillsUSA competition in June, Robinette said.
Of that field, 80 finished in the top 10 nationally, he continued — “That’s 53% from West Virginia. I’d call that more than respectable.”
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