Ozarka College had three culinary arts students competing at the national level SkillsUSA Conference in Kansas City June 23-27.  One of its culinary arts students brought home a bronze medal from the competition.  Kathryn Tebbetts of Bryant won third place in the post-secondary Food and Beverage Service competition against 17 other students from across the United States. 

After winning Gold medals in their divisions at the Arkansas Association of SkillsUSA Leadership and Skills Conference, which was held in Hot Springs in April, three Ozarka College culinary arts students competed at the 44th Annual National SkillsUSA Championships in Kansas City from June 23-27.  This was Kathryn's first time to compete in SkillsUSA. 

William "Joey" Stender of Ash Flat also competed for the first time in the post-secondary culinary arts competition and finished in the top twenty.  Kim Brown of Glenwood competed in the Commercial Baking category and finished in the top twenty.

Ozarka College’s Culinary Arts instructors, Linda Taylor and Mimi Newsome, accompanied the students to the competition in Kansas City.  Taylor expresses her enthusiasm for the students’ accomplishments.  “Just making it to the national competition is a success in itself.  We had our first gold medal back in 2005 at that level, which was exciting for that second year student.  Now with a first year student winning the bronze at nationals, reflects on the quality of our students and the hard work and effort they put into their training and education.”

The SkillsUSA Championships is the showcase for the best career and technical students in the nation. Contests begin locally and continue through the state and national levels. The philosophy of the Championships is to reward students for excellence, to involve industry in directly evaluating student performance and to keep training relevant to employers' needs

This year, there were over 6,000 contestants in 91 separate events during the competitions, with more than 16,000 people drawn to the competition.  Categories include health occupations; leadership development; occupationally-related; official demonstration; and trade, industrial and technical which includes the culinary arts contests. 

For further information of Ozarka’s Culinary Arts Program, the first of its kind in the State of Arkansas, contact Ozarka at 870-368-7371, toll free 1-800-821-4335, or visit the website at www.ozarka.edu.

top picture:  Bronze Medalist, Kathryn Tebbetts pictured with Randy Prather, Arkansas Director for Skills USA.

bottom picture:  left to right: Kim Brown, Kathryn Tebbetts, and Joey Stender.