June Garneau of Berlin, New Hampshire won first place and is the recipient of thousands of dollars in ArcGIS software and a cash award both donated by ESRI of Redland, California.  Garneau's gold medal was based upon an extensive pre-challenge project, STARS testing, and completion of challenge events at the conference.  Garneau is a 2007 graduate of the one-year Spatial Information Technology/Geographic Information Systems (GIS) certificate program at New Hampshire Community Technical College in Berlin.

 "My interest began one year prior to the competition, when I enrolled in a GIS course for kindergarten through 12th grade teachers,” said Garneau.  “I was so interested after the course that I decided to pursue the field of GIS. I am so pleased to end my year of study with this competition and the gold medal."

 This is the second year Skills USA has offered national college competitions which were designed to provide colleges with an effective way to validate their technical programs and measure them against national standards. The Geospatial Technology Challenge was initiated in February 2007 with an on-line, 150 question qualification exam that tested academic knowledge, technical knowledge within the subject area, and general employability skills.  Qualifying contestants were required to complete a STARS certification project. 

Garneau’s project involved Global Positioning Systems (GPS) data collection, surface model development, and site analysis based upon pre-set competition criteria. June chose White Mountain Regional High School as her project, which focused on the best location for a garden. According to Garneau, she put at least 80 hours into her project, which included choosing a location in which to use digitizing techniques and GPS data collecting to create a campus based model including building, water sources, sport facilities, and other campus features. From her base model, she created 3-dimensional models and a preferred garden location based upon six preset criteria. As part of the competition, she had to prepare a PowerPoint presentation, maps, and a written report.

"The experience gave me a unique opportunity to expand my knowledge, build my confidence and abilities in GIS, and to successfully meet challenges that took me through a whole range of skill sets," says Garneau.

As part of the prize package, Garneau earned the STARS Certification from Digital Quest, Inc.  STARS (Spatial Technology and Remote Sensing) is a fully developed “turn-key” certification program for high schools, colleges and university as well as career professionals looking to integrate geospatial tools into their on-on-the job skill set.  STARS is the first industry-recognized geospatial certification recognized by NASA, the U.S. Department of Labor, and by industry leaders.  

 More than 5,000 students from high school and colleges throughout the U.S. competed in the 43rd Annual SkillsUSA Championships in 87 different contests.  High school and college students may download the free 2007 SkillsUSA Competition hands-on examination in preparation for the 2008 examination from www.esri.com/arclessons.

Digital Quest, Inc. is a Mississippi-based development and training oriented company with a primary focus of enabling educational institutions to provide skill training in the new and ever-more vital field of Geospatial Technology.  Digital Quest, an active member of the EIGS geospatial technology cluster, is headquartered in Ridgeland, Mississippi and operates the SPACESTARS Geospatial Training Laboratory at NASA’s Stennis Space Center.  For more information about Digital Quest, visit www.digitalquest.com or contact Eddie Hanebuth at 1-877-573-6683, eddieh @ digitalquest.com.

 SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled work force. .  The national organization helps all students excel in their training programs and future technical, skilled and service careers.  SkillsUSA serves more than 285,000 students and instructors annually.  The organization has 13,000 school chapters in 54 state and territorial associations.  More than 14,500 instructors and administrators are professional members of SkillsUSA.  For more information, visit www.skillsusa.org.

 ESRI is the world leader in the geographic information system (GIS) software industry. ESRI software helps you accomplish tasks faster, easier, and more efficiently. For more information, visit the company website at www.esri.com or the ESRI Education Portal located at http://edcommunity.esri.com.