R-1 SkillsUSA advisor earns state and regional honors

NEW MADRID, Mo. — Gloria Houston admits she would much rather talk about her students and their success, yet it is their success that brought her recognition.

On April 15, Houston, the health science instructor at the New Madrid County R-1 Technical Skills Center, was named the 2021 SkillsUSA Missouri Advisor of the Year. The next day, she received an email naming her the SkillsUSA Region 4 Advisor of the Year.

Now Houston is one of five SkillsUSA advisors competing for the national title later this summer.

Houston was first introduced to SkillsUSA while teaching in the Sikeston R-6 School District. When she joined the staff of the New Madrid County R-1 School District’s Technical Skills Center, she was asked to become the TSC’s SkillsUSA lead advisor.

SkillsUSA is a national membership association serving around 350,000 students preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations and for further education. The New Madrid Technical Skills Center’s chapter has 65 members drawn from all the programs offered through the TSC.

“SkillsUSA is an organization that prepares our students for work,” Houston said. “It prepares them with personal skills, work place skills and technical skills.”

The organization uses a variety of activities to do this ranging from computer testing to group activities dealing with career essentials. There are also community service projects.

This year, the local SkillsUSA chapter provided food baskets for needy families at Thanksgiving and Christmas. They organized the Eagle Christmas which provided children with warm clothes, hygiene products and a holiday meal for them and their families.

However, it hasn’t been easy.

“COVID has really made it difficult. Normally we do a lot more but with the limited number of students we can have together at one time, it has been a challenge,” Houston said. “It took a little extra work and we had to be creative a little bit, but we pushed through and we did it.”

Houston continued: “Which is why the state recognized us because we were still hosting events and doing community outreach and our students were excelling. We had 18 students who won (SkillsUSA) district events this year even during COVID.”

This year, the local chapter earned its third Gold Chapter of Distinction award. Also it received the designation as one of 24 SkillsUSA chapters to achieve the highest honor of Models of Excellence.

As a chapter advisor, Houston said she looks for the leadership potential in every member.

“I try to reach the kids that sometimes I feel have fallen through the cracks. I find their strengths and when we plan activities, I put them in charge of those activities so they are pushed outside of their comfort zone,” she explained.

Houston said she will meet with the students one-on-one and assist them in formulating plans. She requires them to study the skills needed for work place management and organization.

When ready, they take on the challenge of planning, organizing and implementing the activity. When it is over they are asked to determine how well they did and what they could do better.

“It is a lot of work. It will be 7:30, 8:30 at night and I will still be here. But I’m very passionate about it because of the differences I have seen in the kids,” she said. “We have a lot of kids that come in and think because they have been raised in poverty, that is their only option. But once you push them outside of their comfort zone and you allow them to use their strengths and do something they are passionate about then they see the results, they just transform.”

She credited SkillsUSA with enhancing the members’ communication skills and professionalism.

“They are so much more prepared where ever they go. They know how to use critical thinking. The hands-on professionalism that they get, there is just nothing like it. It is just amazing the difference we see in our students,” she added.

Houston said she didn’t know when the announcement will be made about the national winner of advisor of the year. Due to COVID, the national convention will be done online, just like the recent announcement of her state honor.

While Houston said she was surprised when she was named the state’s advisor of the year, two people in the room as they watched the announcement weren’t surprised at all. Trinity Walker, a TSC culinary student and SkillsUSA vice president, and Renee Smith, TSC director, nominated Houston for the honor.

In her essay, Walter wrote: “Through her focus, passion and dedication, Mrs. Houston has proven many times over that she is deserving of recognition. She is caring, kind, honest, loyal, intelligent, encouraging and passionate about the causes she involves herself willingly to, and the people of her community recognize this as well. If you were to ask anyone in not only the school district here in New Madrid but the organizations she is involved in such as the House of Refuge, her peers and colleagues recognize her to be an angel. This may seem exaggerated, but she’s there for her community, students and peers even when she doesn’t have to be.”

Smith describe Houston as a tireless worker whose dedication to her students and the organization is unyielding.

As her name was announced, students shouted and hugged Houston. Houston said there were a few tears of joy shed as well.

“The students, like I said, you build relationships with them. Many of them I will never have in class but through SkillsUSA I feel like I have been able to make an impact in their lives,” she said. “Which is why SkillsUSA is just amazing. It brings other students into your pathway that you could help that normally you wouldn’t have gotten to meet.”