BRUNSWICK

Region Ten Technical High School students Shelby Bishop and April Asselyn recently brought home medals from the SkillsUSA competition in Orono — an annual event showcasing the range of skills students learn in career and technical education classes.

SkillsUSA provides educational programs, events and competitions that support career and technical education in the nation’s classrooms, according to its website. In total, 14 Region Ten students attended the competition March 3.

Asselyn, a student in Region Ten’s automotive collision course, won a silver medal competing in automotive refinishing.

She was required to perform four tasks: Complete an estimate on a wrecked car, tape up a panel, tint a panel and paint and clear-coat a panel.

She was graded on skills for each task. For the painting, for example, judges looked at technique, layering and how the panel looked in the end.

Asselyn excels at refinishing. This summer she plans to apply to some autobody shops. There’s a great need for autobody workers in the industry, Asselyn said, “as long as you know what you’re doing.”

Bishop said she often gives Asselyn props for overcoming the stigma that girls don’t work with cars; they work desk jobs.

“She’s very open minded and strong,” Bishop said. “She feels many girls are too nervous to be in the automotive courses with the guys.”

Asselyn said she did run across one fellow male student who told her he didn’t trust her ability as a girl.

“I started proving him wrong after that,” she said.

She said she’s sure she’ll come up against barriers due to her gender in the industry, but that won’t stop her.

Someone who works at an autobody shop once told her it’s great having female painters “because we have a keener eye for things,” Asselyn said.

“We can see differences in paint fluctuations and different colors better than guys can, just because we’re more detail oriented,” she said. “I’ve heard it from multiple shop owners.”

She loves art and writing, and had always been interested in cars. She learned only last year that Region Ten had an autobody class. She checked it out, “and I love it.”

By the way, she’ll be painting a 1956 Mercury for her senior project.

“It is so pretty,” she said.

Shelby Bishop

Bishop, the last student to compete in the job interview category, brought home the gold medal in the post-secondary bracket, and will go on to the national competition in Kentucky in June.

Bishop graduated a year early and has been able to attend Region Ten full-time this year, where she is in the Certified Nursing Assistant and early childhood program.

All programs require students to have a resume and cover letter, Bishop said, and she was interested in job interviewing and wanted to better in that area. She met with the pre-apprenticeship and English teacher Jason Darling to hone her skills and bolster her resume.

When it was her turn to go before the judges, they asked her typical interview questions, and then asked her a new question: If she could pick one celebrity to have lunch with, who would it be and why?

“I had to sit there and ponder it for a second,” she said. She came up with an answer on the spot: Tim McGraw.

“They do a lot of professionalism so don’t walk in with piercings all over your face,” Bishop said. “Don’t walk in with jewelry on, they don’t like that. They like it when you hair’s up. … You have to be dressed in proper SkillsUSA attire, which is a white shirt, black pants, a red blazer and black shoes.”

Just keeping the white shirts clean was stressful enough, she said, and the buttons on everyone’s blazers were breaking off.

“Things go wrong and you’ve just kind of got to work with it, do what you can and keep a positive attitude,” Bishop said.