It's been a busy couple of months for Connor Smith.
After he earned his associate of applied science degree in building construction from Northeast Community College on May 9, he began working on a framing and siding crew in Central City.
Smith, who is from nearby Aurora, began working on the construction crew on May 27. That's also the day he got engaged. Mix in a lawn care business in Aurora that includes mowing about 35 lawns, and Smith often finds himself working about 70 hours a week.
But there has been another important time this summer for Smith -- his competition in nationals at SkillsUSA in Atlanta at the end of June.
The Phi Theta Kappa inductee had won a gold medal in carpentry at the state level in Grand Island for the past two years while at Northeast and was looking forward to the SkillsUSA competition against the best in the country.
"It's partly scored on how fast you can do the competition. There is also a part scored on a handwritten or computer test, and the other third is how well you can do on the project. They look at the cuts, how it looks and how it is fastened together,” Smith said, “things like that.”
It was a strong finish for Smith with SkillsUSA as he scored 725 points out of 1,000 -- good enough for seventh place out of 21 collegiate competitors at Atlanta.
The project the competitors made was an elaborate doghouse, with a shed roof, dormer and walk through door.
“I had done a shed roof, but never a dormer,” he said.
The competitors had eight hours to complete the project. Nobody finished it in time.
Smith had been competing at SkillsUSA in carpentry since he was in high school in Aurora. He never got nervous at state, especially during the last few years in high school and in college.
At the national level, however, he said he has been nervous “because of the size.”
“It feels massive,” he said. “It feels like 50 times the size of state.”
The state competition is held at Fonner Park and the Heartland Event Center in Grand Island. The national competition in Atlanta includes fills about 3 million-square-feet, and includes about 18,000 people at State Farm Arena where the Atlanta Hawks play.
“I enjoyed going down with the instructors and advisers. They were friendly and easy to work with and everyone got along. They helped us to get where we needed to be.”
The 15 students from Northeast performed well, including one national championship and one third place finish. All 15 at nationals has qualified by winning gold at the state level.
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Mike Rowe (left), who first became nationally known through the TV program “Dirty Jobs,” was the keynote speaker during this year’s national SkillsUSA competition. He is shown here with Connor Smith, the recent Northeast graduate who competed in carpentry. (Courtesy photo)
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