This past June, JWU Providence Baking & Pastry Arts student Daylan Torres traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, to compete in a commercial baking competition that’s part of the massive annual SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference.
Daylan did not attend alone — he was there with 12 other JWU students, all of whom were gearing up for their own tests of their professional competencies. Of that group, 3 earned medals — read about their successes here — and Daylan secured his spot to represent the USA at WorldSkills 2019, which will be held in Kazan, Russia.
At JWU, SkillsUSA is just one of the many National Student Organizations (NSOs) that students can get involved in. Many students join in high school, then transition to collegiate competition. That’s the case for Daylan — he took time to tell us about the opportunities that SkillsUSA participation opened up for him, as well as how his involvement has helped build his confidence, time management skills and connection to JWU. Read on:
When did you first get involved in NSO/SkillsUSA?
I’ve been a part of SkillsUSA since my freshman year of high school. I only really started to get involved in the competition aspect during my sophomore year of high school with the commercial baking competition — that helped me to find my passion for baking. You’re obviously passionate about baking.
Stepping up to the Bakery competition for WorldSkills is a totally different ball game.”
How does competing in commercial baking sharpen your overall skillset?
The commercial baking competition where I competed last year (placing first in the country) really helped me to see the importance of not only practicing, repetition and honing my fundamentals, but of time management, rolling with the punches and keeping your cool.
Stepping up to the Bakery competition for WorldSkills is a totally different ball game. I’m focusing on refining my skills, coming up with new and exciting ideas to make my products stand out, focusing on the details, and what will take me a step up.
Besides all the technical aspects, I’m really trying to build my mental toughness. I’ll be going to another country and competing against extremely talented kids from all over the world. It’s a scary thought, to be honest, but I’m working on it! The prep for this sort of competition will tire you physically and emotionally, so by building that mentality it allows you to focus on moving forward
and persevering.
How did you prepare for the regional qualifier?
For the WorldSkills qualifiers we started out with 12 eligible candidates (Top 3 from high school and college at the national level from the past two years). The first part of the process involves filling out some paperwork and sending our resumes to our potential “expert.” Each student going to Russia in 2019 is paired with an expert in the subject they are competing in; this is the person who will help us along the way as we practice for the international competition. Once paired with our expert, we began to receive modules to complete by a certain timeframe.