Student earns first place at national event

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Though it'll be some time before Jordan Hill earns her doctoral degree in early childhood education and begins teaching at the college level, the recent high school graduate is showing she's got the skills to make that dream a reality.

Hill, who this spring graduated from Hughesville High School and the Lycoming Career and Technology Center, earned first place in the preschool teaching assistant category at the 44th annual SkillsUSA National Championship in Kansas City, Mo., where she competed against 24 other students.

She also earned first place at the state-level competition in Hershey where she competed against 11 students, and first place at the district-level competition at Northumberland County Area Vocational-Technical School where she was up against two students.

"I feel pretty good about myself," Hill said. "It makes me more excited to get into the field."

SkillsUSA is a national nonprofit organization representing 130 occupational areas, serving teachers, high school and college students preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations, including health occupations, according to the career and technology center.

Hill attended Hughesville High School and the career and technology center for her sophomore, junior and senior years, where she studied early childhood education.

The center is an extension of East Lycoming, Montoursville Area, Muncy and Warrior Run school districts and offers career and technical programs such as early childhood, health careers, automotive technology, computer technology, construction, drafting and design, culinary arts, forestry and landscape management, and criminal justice-law enforcement.

At the district competition, Hill was given a box of materials and told to create a math lesson plan to present to the judges, all while being timed. At the state competition, she was given a list of lesson plan topics in advance to pick from and she was allowed to take supplies to use in her plan, again while being timed.

Both competitions also had an "active book reading" component, Hill said, where she had to select a book to read to the judges who acted like preschoolers while she read.

"One judge even ripped up my lesson plan in the middle of it," Hill said, describing how the judges acted like preschool children might in real child care settings.

For the national competition, Hill said she could bring materials, but the judges determined what she could and couldn't use to create a math lesson plan while being timed. The challenge, she said, was that instead of performing the lesson before the judges, she had to perform it to a teddy bear. The judges did this, she said, so competitors would talk to the teddy bear like a preschooler and not be tempted to talk to adult judges like adults.

"The teddy bear was the most difficult part for me," Hill said, saying she likes to create "active learning" lesson plans where students "get up and move to learn." She asked the judges if the bear could be moved, and they said that was her decision, so she said she moved the bear as if it were a child doing her lesson.

Kerri Kime, Hill's early childhood education instructor at the center, said that Hill earned the three first-place finishes was "awesome."

"I'm just so proud of her. She knew she wanted it, and she just set her mind to it and she went for it and she got it," Kime said. "She worked very hard to do it. She did a lot of research and she really practiced."

Kime said she was unable to attend the national competition with Hill, but was on the telephone with her the night before researching and practicing right up until the last minute.

Hill said she never competed in a SkillsUSA competition before this, but said she plans to continue competing in the program's college-level competitions.

"(Competing) was very exciting," Hill said. "I loved every second of it."

Hill said she's attending Pennsylvania College of Technology this fall to study early childhood education and then plans to continue her education at possibly Bloomsburg University or Lock Haven University, with her ultimate goal being to earn a doctoral degree in early childhood education and teach at the college level.

"I want to work with kids, but I like the psychology behind (early childhood education)," Hill said. "There's a real need for early childhood teachers."

Kime said Hill will make a great college professor.

"I think she's wonderful with people. She's understanding and caring and compassionate.," Kime said. "If she keeps her mind at it and she sets that goal in her mind, just like she wanted to go and win nationals, she will. She's that kind of person."

Hill of Picture Rocks is the daughter of Robert and Kimberly Hill, and Robert and Shelly Eddy.