July 1, 2013—The winners of the annual SkillsUSA Championships in automotive refinishing technology were announced June 28 at the awards ceremony of the National Leadership and Skills Conference in Kansas City, Mo.
The top-three high school winners were Shazim Nasim from Queens, N.Y., Kyle Wright from Chantilly, Va., and Nathan Pearl from Guntersville, Ala. The top-three college/postsecondary winners were Ivan Arango from Miami, Fla., Kylie Cimaglia from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Michael P. Leber from Waminster, Pa.
In the automotive refinishing contest, contestants demonstrated their ability to perform jobs and skills through a series of workstations to assess skills in all areas of refinishing, including surface preparation, spray gun operation, determining and fixing defects, and paint mixing, matching and applying.
Over 5,900 career and technical education students participated in the hands-on competition in 98 different trade, technical and leadership fields.
SkillsUSA is a national organization for students in trade, industrial, technical and health occupations education, and it sponsors the championships annually to recognize the achievements of students and encourage them to strive for excellence and pride in their occupations.
