With labor experts forecasting a skyrocketing need for well-trained technicians, educating high school students on the benefits of a good technical education is increasingly important. Steve Johnson, NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle drag racer traveled to the Fort Worth Convention Center Apr. 29 to speak to some 4,000 students competing in the Texas SkillsUSA state championships. SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled work force.

Johnson used real-life experiences during his speech about chasing a career and never giving up. "These students have been on kind of a race track with SkillsUSA lately," said Johnson. "It's really kind of cool work with the WyoTech representatives to recognize the state winners and know they will be going to the Nationals later this year. These students are so competitive in their perspective categories."

The 2005 NHRA U.S. Nationals winner also talked about the experience of making a living blasting through the quarter-mile in NHRA drag racing, accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in just one second.

Johnson also gave out $90,000 in scholarships from WyoTech, a leader in Technical Training, to SkillsUSA winners in the Automotive, Collision and Diesel divisions.

The training available to today's SkillsUSA participants earned a particular nod from Johnson. "I would have loved to have gone to a technical school like WyoTech," he said. "I learned mostly from the school of hard knocks. After seeing some of their campuses, I am so envious of how much these students will know when they enter the work force with a WyoTech diploma in only nine months." 

Scholarship Winners:

Auto:

1st         Jason Bolton of Paris High School

2nd        Jonathan Fleming of Birdville Career Center

3rd         Nathan Knowles of Friendswood High School

Collision:

1st         Jacob Gonzales of Alvin High School

2nd        Angel Flores of Stuart Career Center

3rd         Michael Bryan of Libert-Eylau High School

Diesel:

1st         David Norman of Canyon High School

2nd        Kirk Visser of Georgetown High School

3rd         Aaron Clay of Paris High School