High school students from districts across Missouri submitted entries for the inaugural award competition

Left Image: SKILLED Centennial Award: Buzzin’ for STEAM
Right Image: SKILLED Centennial Award: Bloom Box
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ST. LOUIS, MO – S. M. Wilson and the Missouri School Board Association (MSBA) have announced the winners of the SKILLED Centennial Awards competition, awarding $1,000 to high school students with ideas on how to inspire their community.

As a builder of more than 65 Missouri schools and to honor the firm’s 100th year, S. M. Wilson partnered with MSBA to launch the first SKILLED Centennial Awards. Stemming from S. M. Wilson’s trademarked construction career education program, SKILLED®, the awards challenged high school students throughout the state to think of an idea to improve their community and motivate others to build and create. The awards were sponsored by S. M. Wilson and STL.Works, an online resource to connect job seekers with quality jobs.

With submissions from Districts across Missouri, two student groups were selected to receive the first-place cash prize. The winners were announced at this year’s MSBA Annual Conference in Kansas City and include:

• Buzzin’ for STEAM created by Emir Mustajbegovic, Junior at Oakville High School; Luke Ridenhour, Senior at Kirkwood High School and Sierra Shackelford, Senior at Mehlville High School
• Bloom Box created by Abby Williams, Senior at Affton High School; Imani Noel, Senior at Kirkwood High School; Emanuel Nieto, Junior at Fox High School and Tamia Miller, Senior at Mehlville High School

Both groups included students from multiple school districts participating in the St. Louis Centers for Advanced Professional Studies (STL CAPS) program. STL CAPS are nationally recognized, innovative high school programs that provide students the opportunity to be fully immersed in a professional culture, solving real world problems, using industry-standard tools and are mentored by actual employers, all while receiving high school and college credit. CAPS is an example of how business, community and public education can partner to produce personalized learning experiences that educate the workforce of tomorrow, especially in high skill, high demand jobs

M. Wilson President, Amy Berg says, “We are thrilled with the outcome of the first-ever SKILLED Centennial Awards. With labor shortages in the A/E/C industry at an all-time high, S. M. Wilson’s SKILLED program is dedicated to providing hands-on opportunities to integrate academic learning and focus on future employment in the trades. We value MSBA’s partnership as well as the students and school board members who helped make the competition a success.”

STL CAPS Director, Tim Luecke, Ed.D. says, “We were thrilled to have two of our student associate teams selected as the winners of the SKILLED Centennial Award competition! This project was directly aligned to the CAPS Network Core Values (Profession-Based Learning, Responsiveness, Self-Discovery and Exploration, Professional Skills Development and Entrepreneurial Mindset) and served as a perfect initial client project for the associates to tackle. We truly appreciate the opportunity S. M. Wilson & Co. provided.” Click here to learn more about the winning teams’ projects. 

The CAPS Network is a gathering of institutions across the world focused on the use of Profession-Based Learning to prepare their students for both career and post-secondary next steps. CAPS, a nationally recognized model of career-focused education, is an example of how business, post-secondary institutions and high school educators can partner to produce personalized learning experiences that educate the workforce of tomorrow, especially in high skill, high demand jobs. Instead of traditional forms of instruction, the CAPS Model provides students experiences where they can discover their strengths and passions while exploring potential careers.

MSBA serves as the unified voice of school board members throughout Missouri and provides board member training, comprehensive policy support, legal assistance, superintendent search guidance and other services designed to allow school boards to put maximum resources in the classroom.

S.M. Wilson’s SKILLED program provides hands-on opportunities to integrate academic learning and focus on future employment in the A/E/C industry. S. M. Wilson has been a long-time Affiliate Member of MSBA, and is proud to partner with the organization to create and fund the 2021 Centennial Awards. 

S.M. Wilson is a full-service construction management, design/build and general contracting firm with headquarters in St. Louis and offices in Edwardsville, IL and Cape Girardeau, MO. Founded in 1921, S. M. Wilson is dedicated to going above and beyond expectations for their clients by putting people first. The 100% employee-owned company is one of the leading construction management firms in the Midwest. For more information, visit www.smwilson.com.

 

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Media Contact
Amanda Bohnert
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314-633-5742