South Central Cooperative highlights Girl Power with laser and cutting competition

Photo by Michael Hanich.
From left, Della Ables, Claire Beaver and Jaycee Sanders hold up the lamp that won them 1st place in the CNC cutting competition at Girl Power to the Max.
Photo by Michael Hanich. From left, Della Ables, Claire Beaver and Jaycee Sanders hold up the lamp that won them 1st place in the CNC cutting competition at Girl Power to the Max.

Students from Hampton, Camden Fairview, Smackover-Norphlet, El Dorado and Junction City traveled to The South Central Cooperative in Camden Tuesday for an all-female Career and Technical Education competition called "Girl Power to the Max."

The students brought projects that either displayed their metal working and welding skills for the cutting portion of the competition, or laser engraving for the laser portion.

Student projects were evaluated by a team of judges and the people's choice winner was voted on by the students themselves.

Katelyn Hayden and Crystal Flores of El Dorado captured first-place in laser burning and Alexis Rhodes and Becca Hooks, also of El Dorado, won second-place.

"We really just learned, like, the proper safety with using stuff like that and how to use it," Hayden said. "It's a table top box, and you open the glass part on the top and you lay the board in it. Then you shut the board and push the button and the laser moves around in the box."

Hampton students Jaycee Sanders, Claire Beaver and Della Ables won first-place in metal cutting with a cactus lamp, and Camden Fairview student Xaviera Kaebel-Burgett won second-place for a landscape cutout.

Beaver said, "I really like to weld and I learned that by doing this project."

Katie Robertson, CTE coordinator for South Central Cooperative, said, "We came up with this idea last year. Stacey Southerland -- she's the CTE coordinator for DeQueen, Mena -- so last year, she made a connection and saw that we have a lot of manufacturing in our area... So when we have to do stakeholder events. It's usually a lot of the same people and we see the need over and over and over -- manufacturing, girls that can weld and CNC (computer numerical control) -- learning all about those things."

She said she thought Tuesday's "Girl Power" event went well.

"I am super pleased with the event. With this only being the first of its kind in this area, I think it was a success. Our mission was to introduce students to new technology and have them demonstrate the skills needed to produce a product. I was shocked at the creativity on the projects," Robertson said. "In my role as CTE coordinator, we strive to stay on the pulse of the industry needs. Manufacturing, construction, STEM and problem-solving skills are in high demand and my hope is that events like this allow schools to continue giving high quality skills that will lead to higher paying careers."

Robertson said the competition was made possible through an innovation grant from the Arkansas Department of Education's Division of Career and Technical Education. Students who won first- or second-place in CNC lasering and cutting and the People's Choice award winner were set to advance to a regional competition in Texarkana on March 1.

Rory Gulick, South Arkansas business manager for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, said, "I want to take this moment to congratulate each and every one of you up. I love to see you guys -- you women and ladies -- getting involved in non-traditional training. I go out I'll talk to employers and they'll say 'I'll take a woman welder over a man welder any day' because you guys are a lot more precise, you're a lot more detailed. I'm just absolutely thrilled to see each and every one of you participate in this and I look forward to the workforce to see what happens is more and more of you guys get involved in involved in manufacturing because it gives me a lot of hope that good things around the way."

Bailey Carl, director of Admissions and Recruiting at SAU Tech, gave a short presentation on the courses offered at Tech, such as welding, aviation repair and non-destructive testing.

"Most of our students already have jobs lined up once graduation comes around," Carl said. "Usually half the time students don't get to walk at graduation. We have to end up mailing their diploma to them because they are already on the job somewhere working."

photo Photo by Michael Hanich. Camden Fairview student Xaviera Kaebel-Burgett won 2nd place in metal cutting.

Upcoming Events