SkillsUSA Awards and Recognition Book 2022 - 35

RECOGNITION
SkillsUSA Advisors of the Year
The SkillsUSA Advisor of the Year Award honors SkillsUSA's most dedicated career and
technical education instructors. These talented instructors serve SkillsUSA advisors and
embrace the SkillsUSA Framework and national programming to create career-ready graduates
and opportunities for every member. States hold an Advisor of the Year competition, and
the state winners advance to the regional competition. The top five regional winners are
interviewed during the national conference, and a national Advisor of the Year is selected.
Kimberly Petronella
(Region 1, New York)
Kimberly Petronella has served as a health occupations instructor
at Oneida Herkimer Madison BOCES in New Hartford, N.Y., for 25
years. Prior to teaching, she worked as a nurse in various local health
care facilities. Petronella has also been an award-winning SkillsUSA
advisor for 20 years. In 2021, she was named the SkillsUSA New
York Advisor of the Year and was also honored with the SkillsUSA
Outstanding Career and Technical Educator Award. Petronella's
chapter has earned the SkillsUSA Gold Level in the Chapter of
Excellence program for four consecutive years, and in 2021, her chapter was honored as a
national Model of Excellence. She also helps the state association as a cluster manager and
contest chair at both the Area 2 conference and the state conference. Petronella believes that
career and technical education (CTE) is a gateway to a bright and prosperous career because
she once attended the same CTE high school where she now teaches. " My CTE experience
provided me with the opportunity to explore and learn about my career of choice, and I
am so proud that I have the ability to pay it forward to future generations of health care
providers, " she says. Petronella understands the value of SkillsUSA involvement from both the
student and the teacher perspective, and her exemplary career continues to make a positive
difference in many lives.
Kenneth Brown
(Region 2, North Carolina)
In the 1980's, Kenneth Brown was a student at Richlands (N.C.) High
School, roaming the same halls he does today as one of the school's
teachers. " My senior year, I had no idea what career I wanted, " he
says, " so my parents suggested I visit the guidance counselor. When
I did, she pointed to a shelf and told me to look through the college
catalogs to find a profession. " Brown ended up at Pitt Community
College in the architectural drafting program and loved it, which
eventually led to a job as a drafting teacher. " As a teacher, I never
want a student to go into his or her future having no sense of
direction, " he says. My philosophy is to expose students to my content area and to present
every possible career option. " Brown knows that future employees sit in his classes and
SkillsUSA chapter meetings. Therefore, he sees his job as not only to teach the curriculum but
to prepare students to enter their careers ready to be reliable workers. He aligns his lesson
plans and chapter meetings to include skill sets from the SkillsUSA Framework, saying, " It is
my philosophy that teaching content alone to students will not send competent, well-rounded
people into the workforce. Instead, the content needs to be taught along with essential skills
from the Framework to make sure students become the types of professionals that can excel
in the occupation of their choice. "
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2022 AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

SkillsUSA Awards and Recognition Book 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SkillsUSA Awards and Recognition Book 2022