Lincoln Academy Medal Winners at the March 2025 Maine Skills USA competition are, from left: CJ Colomb, EJ Hunt, and Lila Neptune-Benner.

On March 14, 2025, three Lincoln Academy students who attend classes at Bath Regional Career and Technical Center (BRCTC) won medals at the SkillsUSA statewide Career and Technical Education Competition, which took place in Bangor. Senior CJ Colomb won a gold medal in Culinary Action Skills, and seniors EJ Hunt and Lila Neptune-Benner were part of a team that won a bronze medal in Quiz Bowl.

SkillsUSA is a national organization that provides students with opportunities to develop leadership, teamwork, and technical skills through hands-on competitions and training programs. BRCTC Students who are recommended by their instructors compete each year at the Maine event. 

“Action Skills” is a category that allows competitors to show individual skills during a competition, and takes place across multiple disciplines. Skills could include using a specific tool or demonstrating a technique learned in their Career and Technical education classes, according to BRCTC Culinary instructor Elizabeth (EB) Baldwin. 

The Action Skills category “allows students to showcase their skills at a high level,” she said. “During the competition, participants demonstrate a skill from their Career and Technical Education (CTE) class, while also teaching and explaining their process to the judges. This involves not only performing the skill, but also preparing a speech that lasts between five to seven minutes. Additionally, they are given two minutes to set up and break down their workspace.”

CJ Colomb excelled in the competition by demonstrating how to supreme citrus, which is an advanced knife skill. “He has been practicing this demo since December,” said Baldwin, “and put in a lot of hard work to prepare. CJ also submitted an outline for his presentation and has been open to feedback and critique, which undoubtedly contributed to his success.”

Quiz Bowl has been part of the SkillsUSA for several decades, but this is the first year that Bath Tech has sent a team, according to Gretchen Sequeira, a Bath Tech instructor who served as a judge in the competition. The questions are consistent with other New England state SkillsUSA competitions, and include SkillsUSA and their core values, current events, history, math and more. “Students need to be good at trusting their gut,” said Sequeira. “Many changed their minds only to find they were correct at first. They ring in and have 10 seconds to answer. They can confer with their teammates and give one final answer. They lose points for wrong answers, though, so ringing in can be a downfall.”

“You definitely had to be quick on your feet,” said EJ Hunt, a senior electrical student who competed on the Bath Tech team. He described the event as “very similar to Mr. O’Mahoney’s Quiz Bowl” that takes place during Lincoln Academy Winter Carnival. “Our team was strong in geography and world news. That’s where the majority of our points came from. It’s pretty serious: just the teams and judges. No one else in the room, no phones allowed.”

Lila Neptune-Benner, a senior cosmetology student, was the other LA student on the BRCTC Quiz Bowl team. “It was really fun. The questions were hard, and we didn’t know a lot of the answers that were about SkillsUSA, but we still did pretty well.”

“The whole event was great,” said Hunt. “The quiz bowl part was short, but being there in Bangor for the whole [SkillsUSA] competition was really cool, and I’m glad I went.”