Thomas Edison High School Hosts Skills Competition

Chicken stuffed with ricotta and spinach, rice pilaf, green beans, and bread pudding. That’s what’s on the menu for Wednesday’s culinary arts competition at

Culinary arts is one of more than 25 categories in the Skills USA regional challenge. Students from Montgomery County and Prince George’s County high schools (Damascus, Bladensburg, Laurel, Crossland and Suitland) will compete against Thomas Edison students in nine of these categories.

“It gives students an opportunity to see what they’ve learned and develop new skills,” said Amy Johnson, Thomas Edison’s internship coordinator. Johnson organizes the regional Skills USA competition each year.

Students face off in competitions that fall into two categories: industry-specific (plumbing, medical math, cosmetology, etc.) and leadership (extemporaneous speaking, job interview, prepared speech, etc.) As they prepare for the big day, they learn time management skills and how to cooperate in a team, Johnson said. They also build school spirit.

The application-only, skills-focused high school in Wheaton has hosted the regional competition for the past five years, and volunteers from the community act as judges. Winning teams and individual students advance to the state competition in May, and perhaps beyond that to nationals in June. Last year, three Thomas Edison students advanced to nationals.

One of them, Trevor Sitkoff, who is now a senior in Edison’s Print Technologies and Digital Graphics program, at the national level in the T-Shirt Design Competition, Patch reported last year.

Thomas Edison offers technical skills classes, but the students take academic classes at their home high school elsewhere in Montgomery County for half the school day.

The county does not provide any money for the competition, which costs $15,000 to $20,000, according to Johnson. Therefore, the school holds multiple fundraisers and asks for donations from private companies.

“My goal is to never have a student that can’t go because they can’t afford it,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that Thomas Edison does not teach to the competition. Rather, “I believe that Skills is a reflection of what we teach,” Johnson said.