By Melissa Dunson

mdunson@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Three Carthage Technical Center students’ love for video games helped them beat out all but one other team during the national SkillsUSA championship in June in Kansas City.

Incoming senior Jacob Jones, and recent graduates Mario Martinez and Curtis Westbay took home silver medals in the Information Technology division of the competition.

The three high-school students developed their own video game that teaches other students how to stay safe while on the Internet. The classic arcade-style game incorporates questions relating to Internet usage and includes a safety quiz that has to be passed with 100 percent success before the participant can play the game.

Renee Riley, information technology teacher at the Carthage Technical Center, said judges and other championship attendees were impressed with the program, and there have been offers to publish the game since then.

During the national competition, Jones, Martinez and Westbay had to set up a trade-show-style booth to exhibit their video game, demonstrate it to the judges, and hand out information on online safety to parents and other competition participants.

The Carthage Technical Center sent eight contestants to the SkillsUSA national championships this year, as well as one Missouri state officer and five students to serve on the Courtesy Corps and help with a large service project at the end of the competition.

“This is the biggest group we’ve ever taken,” Riley said.

Riley said the three students had never worked together before but became a cohesive team for the competition.

“It was a challenging contest,” she said. “I mean, they got second in competing against the rest of the nation.”

Out of the more than 5,000 students who competed at the SkillsUSA championship, 32 Missouri students won medals for first-, second- and third-place finishes. The Carthage students were the only Joplin-area competitors to earn medals.

Skills USA