The Skills U.S.A Mid-America Conference and award ceremony was held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Downtown Omaha on 16th and Dodge, from October 26, 2025, to October 29, 2025. Skills U.S.A is a collaboration between business industries and students. Natalie Runyon is the advisor for Skills U.S.A at Omaha North High School.
This year the Omaha North Skills U.S.A chapter took a couple officers, as well as a few sophomores and freshman who have not had the chance to become officers. Students went to learn how to run a chapter and have the skills to become future officers.
In Skills U.S.A, the students learn how to communicate and connect with business partners and people in the industry.
“We help students prepare for the future workplace, getting them the skills they need and the students come in with the talent skills,” said Runyon.
The conference covered many topics including fundraising activities, any type of mentoring, industry tours, and contests the students will participate in. It also taught students about their peers, and the rules and expectations of the program.
Mid-America is a leadership conference where students learn how to run a Skills U.S.A chapter in their school. At the conference, the students have three days to learn how to do everything, then they make a model on how to do a certain skill.
Skills U.S.A is not a class, but they would like to make it one. Skills U.S.A covers every profession from health, construction, engineering, computer science, digital cinema and much more.
“The conference this year went really well, it was a busy three days and two of our freshman students actually won the most awards. A student ran for officer and won president of their chapter,” said Runyon.
Something students learned was how to run a meeting, and a chapter, a lot of other students were apart of committee leagues or participated in fund raising.
One of the freshman who won an award was Zariaah Zitek, 9. Zitek won 2nd place in chapter notebook which is a summary of your group and what the group talked about.
A lot of students join Skills U.S.A because they enjoy it and it looks good on college applications.
“I like being in Skills U.S.A because it teaches you new skills, and leadership while also meeting new people,” said Zitek.
At the conference the students also listened to what the speaker has to say and their instructions. The meetings are after school, and the conferences last one to three days. Some competitions the students are participating are Early childhood, Cyber Security, Photography, and Urban search & rescue.
The members of the Skills U.S.A team enjoy the memories and the opportunities that they are able to build by attending events.
“My favorite memory from the events is meeting new people,” said Skyler Linstrom, 9.
Some skills students worked on at the conference was how to be apart of the committee, being president, secretary, and treasurer.
