March 25, 2000
Teen joins adults to make national decisions
By Cathy Willoughby
Staff Writer
Sentinel Career Center Cosmetology Program junior Terese Stinchcomb has experienced a number of "firsts.''
And they are leading the Columbian student to even more. She became the first student to participate in a nationwide task force to create curriculum changes in the Skills USA-VICA vocational programs.
She traveled to Falls Church, Va., the end of February. She was one of two young women selected to participate.
After arriving in the city, experiencing her first airplane trip, Stinchcomb learned that the other student was ill, and she would be the only participant.
"The first night we ate Asian buffet and met everyone,'' Stinchcomb said. "After that, we had a little meeting where we introduced ourselves and they started explaining what we would be doing.''
The first full day of sessions involved discussing the student employability skills packet, and advising changes in lesson plans. Then Stinchcomb said the group divided into three sub-groups to discuss specific issues.
"My group did etiquette,'' she explained. "Another did safety and the other, the career fair. ''
"We discussed different activities that the teachers could work on with the students,'' she continued. "Like good dressing versus bad dressing, they could have the students do a runway show, showing how you should dress before you go on a job interview, or proper VICA dress, or whatever the occasion.''
Besides dressing concerns, Stinchcomb learned there's more to consider when teaching proper etiquette to Skills USA students.
"It's table manners, too,'' she exclaimed. "It's more important than you think. They might think, 'Why learn about table settings?' Like there are 50 different pieces of silverware, and I wasn't sure, so it helps you prepare.''
Other topics discussed by the task force were the employability skills packets, chapter standards and improving the Internet web page. "We talked about how to improve that and new stuff to put in,'' Stinchcomb said. "They will be establishing a school of the month, and since I participated, they said they would put Sentinel on for the first school of the month.''
Stinchcomb heard about the task force conference in Skills USA-VICA by looking at the site on the Internet. She e-mailed her interest in the project.
Since her trip took her close to the nation's capital, and the National VICA office is in Washington, D.C., she was taken on a tour of some of the city's sites, including the White House and the Capitol.
"You had the feeling that you were all on the same team,'' Stinchcomb said of the other 18 members, all adults, of the task force. "We did do a lot of stuff, and they listened to my ideas. I had the feeling that we were all equal.''
She is serving as the president of her junior cosmetology class, and is president of the Junior Skills USA-VICA chapter at Sentinel. Now that she has had a taste of the involvement at the national level, Stinchcomb is setting her sights on becoming Sentinel's first national Skills USA-VICA officeholder.