Veterinary Assistant students, all from Riverside School District, Hailey L. Miller, Hailey J. Miller, & Harley Thompson, took 1st Place in their competitive event of Career Pathways, Health Services at SkillsUSA Pennsylvania, April, 2019. The team conducted a presentation on ‘Rabies Vaccination Awareness’.
Being inspired by a rabies lesson from their Veterinary Assistant instructor, Mrs. Stephanie Vuckovich, the girls realized that not many people know just how fatal the disease is for both humans and animals.
Hailey, Hailey, and Harley became members of SkillsUSA and wanting to compete, sought the advice of their SkillsUSA Advisor, Mrs. Betsy Zelina. The girls thought doing a presentation in the ‘Health Services’ category may be a good fit to educate those unaware of rabies dangers.
Their presentation took six months to put together. They began additional research on the topic itself, created posters, stickers, car decals, and pens to display and hand out, coordinated live presentations, collected donations for the Human Society totaling $669.69, and finally developed speeches to prepare them for their competition. Facilities that they hung posters and presented were, Pet Supplies Plus in Chippewa, Reeds Services in Ellwood City, and the Beaver County Humane Society located in Center Township.
The girls enjoyed their experiences and feel as though their public speaking skills have greatly improved! It was an added bonus to them in making new friends during the competition but becoming closer friends themselves.
“Mrs. Z, Mrs. V, and Ms. T have helped us so much and we appreciate the faith they had in the three of us. We could not thank them enough for their support,” the girls added.
So now, these ladies are looking forward to Nationals in June and are already thinking about a new presentation for next year… look out! GOOD LUCK at SkillsUSA Nationals, H3!