Photo courtesy of Catawba Valley Community College. Used with permission.
It was a sweet win for SkillsUSA members from Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC) in Hickory, N.C., when they took an idea from SkillsUSA Week and expanded it into a semester-long project to honor both instructors and community members for the great work they were doing during the pandemic.
The SkillsUSA chapter members bought candy bars and wrapped them in custom school wrappers that featured quotes. One quote from CVCC President Garrett Hinshaw said, “CVCC and SkillsUSA create champions,” and a quote from CVCC SkillsUSA chapter executive director Tammy Muller stated, “Lives are being changed because of you.” The labels for the candy bars were designed and created by CVCC advertising and graphic design student Devyion Smyre.
“One of the things that I love about our SkillsUSA program is that I get to work with students like Devyion, who have special talents that are being honed by our SkillsUSA advisors like Jenn Cobb and Aaron Tallman,” Muller said. “During this project they taught me that customer service is not telling people how awesome you are, but rather about creating a story that does the talking for you.”
This project not only highlighted Catawba Valley’s talented graphic design students but was also an affordable way to recognize the great work SkillsUSA advisors are doing for the program. CVCC students hope to continue creating projects like this in the future to highlight CTE heroes at their school and in their community.
