CHS students learn the key to success: Just relax

Entering the National SkillsUSA Competition in Kansas City, two teams from Carson City thought they had an edge.

They knew their skills were comparable with the other competitors, but what turned out to be the difference was heeding the advice of their teachers to just cooperate and relax.

"We were told to just relax. The one thing that bugs me is how serious the other teams were. We just wanted to relax and have a good experience," said Clark Molholland.

Molholland, along with teammate Lydia Peri, both entering their senior year at Carson High School, took home the gold medal in the Web design category at the national competition. They were one of two CHS teams to take home medals at the competition, June 26-29.

Web design is one of more than a dozen areas in the occupational and technical fields included in the competition, which allows high school and college students to compete against winners from 40 states.

Tyler Bourns and Greg Saunders took home the silver medal in the video production category.

To attend the national competition, a team must win at the state level.

For Web design, that means a test and interview as well as creating a Web site from scratch in five hours.

"We created Portal 19, which we made up. We kind of threw that together as a MySpace knockoff that allows students to showcase their works," Molholland said.

At the national competition, the team had seven hours to create a site for a nonprofit environmental camp.

"We just work really well together, and we like to have fun. We aren't afraid to tell each other if we don't like it," Peri said. "There were teams around us that were arguing and fighting, and we were just laughing at them."

That ability to work as a team also helped Bourns and Saunders during their competitions.

Their challenge was to create 60-second commercials, including shooting video and editing, in six hours.

At the state competition in Reno, the commercial was for the National Auto Museum and at the national competition it was the National World War I Museum.

"We always look to make sure we have the bases covered and then try to add a creative element," Bourns said.

The pair said just being able to get the experience was what helped them achieve their success.

"It was learning by doing and being able to feed off each other. We are constantly messing around and making videos," Bourns said. "It's just experience, experience, experience."

The students also credit their teacher, Brian Reedy, with making them work to get better.

"He told us to never give up on a project. There is always something more that you can do to make it better or improve it," Saunders said. "If you take the classes seriously you will have plenty of opportunities to showcase your work to the country."

For medaling, the students received $10,000 scholarships to the Center for Digital Imaging in Boston and software packages valued at more than $1,000.

Bourns plans to move to Los Angeles and attend Los Angeles City College majoring in film. Saunders is headed to the University of Nevada, Reno, to major in engineering.

Molholland plans to go into information technology after completing his senior year, while Peri hopes to go into film or a medical field. In the meantime, the pair doesn't plan on defending their national web title next year.

"I'd like to try video," Peri said.

• Contact reporter Jarid Shipley at jshipley@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.

On the Net

See the video that won Tyler Bourns and Greg Saunders the silver medal at the National SkillsUSA Competition by going to www.nevada

appeal.com.