Great Plains students semi-finalists in state contest

Four Great Plains Technology students won first place in the Skills USA competition in April in Tulsa and will move on to Nationals.

The winners are Desirae Kane for automotive refinishing technology, William Gordon for sheet metal, and Isaac Stewart and Connor Moran for 3D visualization and animation.

Kane is taking automotive collision repair classes, which consists of outside structural repair of the body, damage and dent repair, and refinishing, among other things.

Kane said she chose her field because her whole life is about cars.

“I’ve grown up around cars,” Kane said. “My dad’s a mechanic, so just being around vehicles all my life, I’ve just grown more and more into different areas of that field.”

Even though she is a female in a male-dominated field, Kane said the division doesn’t bother her.

“I just go in and try my best,” Kane said. “I don’t want anybody’s opinions or words to affect my work, I just do what I’m passionate about.”

Kane said she plans to be a body shop painter and own her own shop.

Gordon studies residential HVAC, which consists of building A/C ducts out of sheet metal, among other things. He plans to work at Professional Contract Services Inc. (PCSI) at Fort Sill when he’s done with school.

Gordon said he plans to build a house with his extensive knowledge of construction.

“To be honest, I started out in carpentry, then I took electrical and now I’m taking HVAC,” Gordon said. “I want to build a house from the ground up, so I took all of them to be able to build a house.”

Moran and Stewart study 3D animation, which consists of creating digital 3D models for video games and movies, among other things.

Moran said he was inspired to go into 3D animation by watching a cinematic cutscene from Final Fantasy XV.

“It was really beautiful and it changed how I looked at stuff in this field and made me appreciate it more,” Moran said.

After graduating, Moran plans to work on Unreal Engine coding, which is a gaming software from Epic games.

Stewart said he’s always been interested in game development, film and animation.

Stewart plans to work on Indie development after graduation. Indie development is where a person creates games independently, without the backing of major game publishers.

The four will go to Atlanta in June for Nationals. According to Jenna Alston, the Career Tech Student Organization adviser, if they compete in the semi-finals and graduate before Nationals, they can still compete since they were already taking classes during the competitions.