Three Riverland Community College Law Enforcement students won gold medals for Crime Scene Investigation at SkillsUSA's 46^th annual National Leadership and Skills Conference held in Kansas City June 20-25.

Amber Engebretson (Bricelyn), John Jorgenson (Austin) and TJ Lynch (Hayfield) became national champions for Crime Scene Investigation. These law enforcement students showed superior skills working as a three-person team to process a crime scene. The judged criteria for competition required the team to legally search for, properly collect and remove evidence from an established crime scene scenario. One member of the team was required to lift a latent fingerprint from a pre-selected item of evidence. After the scene was processed, the team wrote their report, drew a crime scene sketch and marked all evidence.

"This is the first time the law enforcement students have competed nationally and only the second time that Riverland has competed in this category in the Minnesota SkillsUSA completion," said Paulette Clark, law enforcement program coordinator and instructor for Riverland. "A national championship says a lot for our students, instructors and the Riverland Law Enforcement & Criminal Justice program."

To qualify for the national competition students must win gold medals at the state level. Besides Engebretson, Jorgenson and Lynch winning for Crime Scene Investigation, four Riverland students placed first in state SkillsUSA competition and qualified for the national SkillsUSA contest.  Minnesota gold medalists included Sergio Hernandez (Walters) for Extemporaneous Speaking; Selena Smith-Flemming (Owatonna) for Customer Service; Katherine Kirsch (Albert Lea) for Health Occupation Professional Portfolio; and Randal Curtis (Austin) for Prepared Speech. Lynch also won individually for Criminal Justice. Raymond Krell (Owatonna) received second at the state level for Carpentry. He advanced to nationals as an alternate. In national competition, Kirsch placed fourth, Smith-Flemming placed sixth, Hernandez placed seventh and Krell placed 11^th.

"All our students did really well when you consider the hundreds they competed against at the national conference, " said Janelle Unverzagt, Riverland Cosmetology instructor and one of the SkillsUSA advisors who accompanied the students to Kansas City. Tom Wilker, Riverland carpentry instructor also attended as a SkillsUSA advisor. Annette Beasley (Austin) also participated at the national conference as a SkillsUSA Minnesota state officer.

SkillsUSA is a leadership organization for students in career and technical programs in high school and college. Students participate in leadership and skills competition at local, state and national levels where they build and reinforce technical skills, self-confidence, work attitudes and communications skills. The contests follow nine career and technical education cluster areas: arts and communication; construction; health services; legal and protective services; hospitality; human services, manufacturing; science, engineering and technology; and transportation.

SkillsUSA sponsors the National Leadership and Skills Conference annually to recognize the achievements of career and technical education students and to encourage them to strive for excellence and pride in their chosen occupations. More than 5,000 students compete in more than 91 occupational and leadership skill areas. More than 14,000 people attend.

Nationally, SkillsUSA serves trade, industrial, technical and health occupations students in public high schools, career and technical centers and schools and two-year colleges.  SkillsUSA has more than 300,000 student members annually, organized into more than 16,000 sections and 54 state and territorial associations (including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands). SkillsUSA has served more than 9.9 million members.