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HICKORY The Hickory Career and Arts Magnet (HCAM) School set a national record in June, finishing second in the Crime Scene Investigation competition at the 2017 SkillsUSA national championships held in Louisville, Ky.

Its the highest any North Carolina high school has ever scored in this competition, according to the teams advisor Seth Bailey, HCAM and Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC) criminal justice instructor.

SkillsUSA is a national partnership of students, teachers (middle-school, high-school and college/postsecondary) and industry representatives working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce, according to skillsusa.org. More than 16,000 students competed in 100 occupational and leadership skill areas at the competition.

The HCAM team of Summer Walsh, Shelby Sipe and Brian Martinez entered nationals as the North Carolina state SkillsUSA champions as well.

It took a lot of hard work. The group I have this year did a lot of studying on their own, Bailey said.

They were first in state to reach nationals where they competed against 35 other teams.

I got their scores back, and what was interesting was in high school, on the written exam, the highest score in the state was 95, and thats what we got, and the state average on the written exam was 82, and at nationals, the highest written exam score was 87, and we got an 87, Bailey said. Our team was definitely one of the best.

Summer Walsh graduated from HCAM in May and this was her first year participating in SkillsUSA. She saw it as an important opportunity and called it the best choice shes made concerning her education while in high school.

The competition begins with the teams being briefed on a crime scenario. They use that information to process the crime scene, taking photographs, making measurements.

The group writes a report, building an evidence and photography log. They have three minutes for processing and 30 minutes to fill out evidence bags and their logs.

Walsh is attending CVCC and looks to transfer to a four-year university.

It impacted me big time. I had so much support and really want to do it again next year and it showed me what its like to be working in that field, Walsh said.

She realizes the competition experience isnt exactly like investigating an actual crime scene but it covers all the basics.

In the field, youre not going to have just 30 minutes to process a crime scene, Walsh said. Youre going to have all the time you can get, but theres things called transient evidence, which is evidence that can be damaged in minutes, so you have to hurry up to get that.

She thinks everyone should participate in SkillsUSA.

It shows your skills and ambition and it shows you how passionate you are about your career path, Walsh said.

Shelby Sipe, a junior at HCAM, has always been a fan of the television show CSI, and in the schools Forensics Academy, she found out about the HCAM Crime Scene Investigation team.

When I found out the school offered that course I jumped straight for it, Sipe said.

It was her teacher Seth Bailey who encouraged her to try the SkillsUSA team.

I started doing crime scenes every week, and I realized it was something I really wanted to do. This will help me out a lot, Sipe said.

While its a lot of fun for her, Sipe admits its a big commitment and a lot of work.

You have to know your history about court cases and how to process the evidence, she said.

It comes down to a students attention to detail.

We have a visualization test and you get a certain amount time, like 30 seconds to look at a picture and youre asked about what you see, Sipe said. You have a written test based on background knowledge of criminal justice.

In general, she thinks her time preparing for SkillsUSA made her a better student. It reinforced the idea of discipline when it came to studying and the importance of participating in class.

She already has her sister following in her footsteps when it comes to criminal justice and SkillsUSA.

Its gotten me more involved with working with other people, Sipe said. This has gotten me communicating better in large groups and to do interviews and just get prepared for what is going to happen when I get out into the real world.

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Hickory Career and Arts Magnet sets standard for NC at SkillsUSA championships - Hickory Daily Record