Twenty LCTI students traveled to Hershey for the SkillsUSA Pennsylvania Leadership & Skills Conference held April 2-4, 2025.

Twenty LCTI students traveled to Hershey last week for the SkillsUSA Pennsylvania Leadership & Skills Conference and one of them returned to the Lehigh Valley as a state champion.

Northern Lehigh High School senior Gage Tessitore won a gold medal in the Electronics Technology contest and qualified to compete at SkillsUSA nationals this summer in Atlanta. Gage, 18, is a fourth-year student in the Electronics Technology program at Lehigh Career & Technical Institute.

Four other LCTI competitors medaled in their events, winning either silver or bronze during the conference held April 2-4. They are:

• Robert Lanyon, a Parkland High School senior studying Diesel Medium & Heavy Truck Technology. He won a silver medal in Diesel Equipment Technology.
• Colin Macaulay, a Northwestern Lehigh High School junior studying Heavy Equipment Operations & Preventive Maintenance. He won a silver medal in Heavy Equipment Operation.
• Owen Rex, a Northwestern Lehigh junior studying Welding Technology. He won a silver medal in the Welding contest held March 11 at Penn College of Technology in Williamsport.
• Clay Soares, a Parkland senior studying Culinary Arts. They won a bronze medal in Restaurant Service.

School counselor and SkillsUSA advisor Cory Schnaufer said he and fellow advisors are proud of the work students put in to prepare for the conference and how they represented LCTI. “They students all did great and put forth their best efforts to complete in their respective career and technical subject areas at the state level.

Kudos to all the competitors and congratulations to the medalists. This is how we achieve!

Check out a video of the conference medal ceremony below.