NC students win SkillsUSA
Gold Medals; prepare for
international competition
North Carolina Construction News staff writer
Kelby Thornton
North Carolina’s masonry appren-
tices and students continued to lead
the nation in awards and medals at
this year’s 55 th Annual SkillsUSA Na-
tional Leadership and Skills Confer-
ence in Louisville.

Ashton White made history as
the first woman to repeat as Na-
tional Gold Metal Champion, the
North Carolina Masonry Contractors
Association (NCMCA) reports in its
newsletter. She had earned the
post-secondary title in 2018 and
won again this year.

Meanwhile, Grant Helms won the
Gold Metal in the competition’s high
school division.

Rodney Harrington at West
Rowan High School instructed both
White and Helms. They earned the
opportunity to represent North Car-
olina at the national competition by
winning their respective division ti-
tles at the April 2019 North Carolina
SkillsUSA State Conference in
Greensboro. White spent the summer working
for Gates Construction Company
and will be studying construction
management this fall at the Univer-
sity of North Carolina at Charlotte.

“There’s a lot of hings that make
me happy about masonry,” Ashton
told the NCMCA. “I love getting to
go out and explore, and meeting
new people everywhere I go. There
are different techniques that people
use, it’s always changing, there is al-
ways a better way. I love that it is so
hands on.”
Helms, a senior at West Rowan
High School, has also enjoyed suc-
cess at previous masonry competi-
tions. NCMCA workforce development
and training coordinator Ryan
Shaver serves as co-chair fo the
SkillsUSA National Masonry Compe-
tition. “SkillsUSA allows students to get
involved in extra-curricular activities
like football, baseball and basketball.

Except they actually get to show-
case the skills they learned at the
schools and compete and move on
and start their careers,” he said in
the NCMCA newsletter.

“That’s exactly what I did. I
played bricklaying in high school. I
still play bricklaying today.”
With the 2019 wins, North Car-
olina’s national medal count stands
at 38 Gold, 15 Silver and two
Bronze. Skills USA serves more than
360,000 students and instructors an-
nually. Meanwhile, as the NCMCA
newsletter was going to press,
North Carolina’s Kelby Thornton was
in Kazan, Russia, to represent the
US in masonry at the 45 th World-
Skills Competition.

Thornton has been preparing for
the contest with his coach, USA
WorldSkills Team masonry expert
Todd Hartsell of Central Cabarrus
High School in Concord. Thornton’s
a two-time National SkillsUSA Ma-
sonry Champion. He won the Ma-
sonry Gold Medal as a junior and as
a senior in 2016 and 2017 respec-
tively. The North Carolina Construction News — AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 — 15