It was like a science fair on steroids. Last June, nearly 5,000 high-school students gathered at the Kansas City Convention Center for the SkillsUSA Championships, consisting of 84 hands-on contests in every trade and technical profession you can imagine.
In an area the size of 11 football fields, teams of teens showed off their skills in fields from carpentry to commercial baking to nursing to 3-D animation; they also vied in "employability skills" such as public speaking, job interviewing, community service, and (planners take note!) parliamentary procedure.
Behind it all is conference organizer Gary Diehl, who's been with the organization since 1970. SkillsUSA, he explains, is a national nonprofit based in Leesburg, VA, that promotes a prepared workforcenot by actually training students in bricklaying, robotics, hair styling, or the other trade areas it serves (that's done via cooperative training or career-technology programs), but by teaching those above- mentioned "employability skills." Explains Diehl, "If students are learning auto mechanics, say, our teachers teach them decision-making, teamwork, communicationshow to do the best job they can so that when they go to work, they know how to talk to the customer, find out what's wrong with the car, and so on."
The championships are just one part of the organization's five-day national conference, and Diehl oversees the entire 14,000-attendee operation. "I'm kind of the master of ceremonies," he says modestly. "There are a lot of people who work with me to make sure things happen as they're supposed to." Those include a conference staff of about 30, plus at least 1,500 volunteers.
Diehl's biggest challenge is "making sure everything is running like a machine." For the skills contests, which take place over two days, "We have to get all the equipment moved in on time and all the judges on the floor so that when the contestants walk in, everything's in placelights, security, the machines turned on, et cetera." (The electricity bill alone is upwards of $120,000.) He estimates he spends about a third of his time on the conference until "crunch time," about six to eight weeks out. How many hours does he spend then? He deadpans: "Are there 26 or 27 hours in a day now?"
Diehl got started in this business back when his father started a chapter of the organization in 1965. "I helped some of the students train in public speaking and other contests, and I got hooked," he says. "It was because of my father that I wanted to become a teacher and advisor."
And he admits to a similarly paternal affection toward his charges. "I love it when I see a student win an award, or give a speech before a group better than the audience could," says Diehl. "You can see the smiles on their faces. They're mature young people who think highly of themselves." He's been offered jobs elsewhere for much more money, he says, but he turned them down "because I enjoy my work. It makes you feel good that you're doing something worthwhile."