Twelve Polaris students recently competed at the SkillsUSA state competition in Columbus. SkillsUSA allows students to showcase their skills and abilities in specific career-technical training areas. This year, hundreds of students from around Ohio competed in dozens of different events. One Polaris student took home first-place honors and qualified to compete at nationals in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 23-27, 2025.
Polaris Precision CNC Machining senior, Jayden Schultz, Brooklyn High School, finished first in CNC Programmer. In this competition, students are evaluated on their ability to independently plan and program jobs for 2-Axis CNC (Computer Numerical Control) turning centers and 3-Axis CNC milling machines and provide instructions for operators to execute. Competitors program part features and generate NC code using CAM software, troubleshoot G-code programming errors, interpret prints (including geometric dimensioning and tolerancing or GD&T), measure/gauge parts and demonstrate their theoretical knowledge of CNC turning centers and milling machine configuration, setup and operation.
In addition, Polaris had four students place in the top three in their skills events. EMT-Fire Training seniors Katelyn Lehmann, Berea-Midpark High School and Abby Pirnat, Olmsted Falls High School, took second place in the EMT competition. Ayden Weddle, an HVAC/R senior from Berea-Midpark High School, finished second in the HVAC event. Finally, Domanick Cvelbar, an EMT-Fire Training junior from Berea-Midpark High School, brought home third place honors in the First Aid/CPR challenge.
Click HERE to view a summary of all the Polaris student competitors and how they placed. Congratulations to all of you, especially Jayden! Good luck at nationals!