Milwaukee Public Schools’ Bradley Tech High School, 700 S. 4th St., will host, for the first time, the southeastern Wisconsin SkillsUSA district meet, on Thursday, Dec. 7 from 3 to 7:30 p.m.
More than 200 area middle and high school students compete at the event in a variety of "hands-on and real-world" trade and technical competitions, including:
- Automotive service technology
- Carpentry
- Plumbing
- 3D printing and design
- Related technical math
- Team engineering
- Welding
- Woodworking
- Job interviews
- and much more
Students from MPS Bradley Tech High School and Barack Obama CTE, Germantown High School, New Berlin West High School, J.I. Case High School, Slinger High School and Union Grove High School will take part in the competition.
Professionals from area companies like Caterpillar, Insinkerator and Graydient Creative, as well as Milwaukee Area Technical College, serve as judges for the competition, which gives students a chance to put their STEM skills to use and to meet working professionals in these trade and technical fields.
The national SkillsUSA organization – of which there is a Wisconsin chapter – promotes career and STEM education, as well as employability skills, via educational programs, meets like the one being held this week in Milwaukee.
Schedule (all times are approximate):
- 4 p.m. – Opening ceremony
- 4:15 to 6:30 p.m. – Written and hands-on contests
- 6:30 p.m. – Closing ceremony
- 7:15 p.m. – Awards ceremony
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
