Three Lincoln Academy seniors attending the Bath Regional Career and Technical Center medaled in the statewide SkillsUSA competition for Career and Technical Education students March 15. From left: Sadie Bryant won a bronze medal in cosmetology; Gwen Weaver won a gold medal in culinary, and Eleanor Nery, won a silver medal in baking and pastry. (Photo courtesy Lincoln Academy)
On March 15, three Lincoln Academy students who attend classes at Bath Regional Career and Technical Center won medals at the SkillsUSA statewide Career and Technical Education Competition, which took place in Bangor.
Senior Gwen Weaver won a gold medal in the culinary competition. Senior Eleanor Nery won a silver medal in the baking and pastry competition, and senior Sadie Bryant won a bronze medal in the cosmetology competition.
SkillsUSA is a national organization that provides students with opportunities to develop leadership, teamwork, and technical skills through hands-on competitions and training programs. BRCTC students who are recommended by their instructors compete each year at the Maine event.
Each of the three competitors was selected by their BRCTC instructors to compete at SkillsUSA. Nery and Weaver participated in cooking competitions in their senior culinary class to qualify, and Bryant was chosen by her instructor.
“Once I knew I would be competing, my instructors started helping me practice,” Weaver said.
She worked on the skills known to be on the culinary competition, including dressing a chicken into its component parts, making a stock, and mixing an emulsified dressing. “I worked on chickens every day at [BRCTC]. I did a lot of practicing that was outside of our regular voc programming” she said. “My instructors really helped me be ready.”
Nery worked on her baking and pastry skills during the months leading up to the competition. Knowing timing would be her biggest challenge, she practiced with timing and equipment during mock competitions in class.
Bryant spent extra time practicing updos during her BRCTC classes, and even brought a manikin home to get extra practice time in.
Both of the cooking competitions were structured similarly, with competitors given four hours, and all of the ingredients to make a required list of dishes. Each was required to bring all of their equipment: pots, pans, mixer, knives, bowls, etc. with them, which required them to organize and pack “a huge rubber tub on wheels” for the competition, according to Nery.
Timing was critical for both competitions, requiring the student chefs to plan carefully. Weaver cut her chicken first, and after the judges scored her on that, she reserved part of the chicken for her main course and put the rest in a pot to make stock. Nery, meanwhile, mixed up her yeast roll dough and set it to rise before starting work on her cookies and biscuits. Competitors are docked points for going any amount over time.
“Timing was the biggest challenge for me because of all the stuff we had to make,” said Nery, “A frosted cake, biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, Dutch apple pie, yeast rolls, and whoopie pies, all in four hours.”
Student cooks also had to clean up their station and all of their dishes within the four hour window. Weaver said cleaning up was part of her work flow. “The key to having a focused mind is staying organized, so I tried to clean up as I went along,” she said.
The cosmetology competition involved a single challenge: an updo on a manikin that competitors had one hour to complete.
“We didn’t know what the updo would be until the day of the competition,” Bryant said. When they arrived they were assigned, “a left-parted french braid into a low bun with twists and braids throughout it.” Bryant received the highest score from the judges for her updo, but lost points because she failed to test the temperature of her curling iron the way judges required.
“I tested it on my hand, but we were supposed to test it on a piece of perming paper,” Bryant said.
All three students agreed the competition, while stressful, is a helpful preparation for real-world time pressures in the workplace. “In the workplace you are on a timeframe, and it’s not always your own,” Bryant said. “It is good to be able to do things under pressure.”
“The competition helps me use skills outside of the classroom,” said Nery. “Moving from skill to skill with multiple products, having to juggle different things at one time,” is similar to restaurant work. “My head was just packed with so much happening.”
Bryant plans to attend Aveda Institute next year to complete her cosmetology certification. Nery, who currently works at River House in Damariscotta, plans to take a gap year before going on to culinary school. Weaver, who currently works at Bred in the Bone Restaurant in Damariscotta, plans to continue her culinary studies at Southern Maine Community College next year.
