Long County High School’s SkillsUSA chapter attended its third State Leadership and Skills Conference and came home with two medals.

On Saturday, February 21, the school heard its placement of the eight different competitions its 16 students competed in. Two students were named state finalists with one placing second and taking home the silver medal and one placing first, winning the state championship.

Senior Kaydn Meyers, a founding member of the Long County chapter, was named a finalist in the Photography competition and won the state championship.

Not only did Meyers win the state championship, he was given a scholarship toward a photography certificate at a technical college of his choice and will advance to the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in June.

Sophomore Ireland Clayton competed in Culinary Arts and was named a finalist, winning the silver medal. Along with her placement, she received a set of culinary knives and a $2,000 scholarship to the Culinary Institute of America in New York.

This is the third year in a row Long County’s chapter had state finalists. In 2024, Tylayja Hills won the bronze medal in Screenprinting Technology and Ben Stokes and Tristan McNeal won the state championship in Interactive Application and Video Game Design.

Last year, Stokes teamed up with Shawn Young to win the silver medal in the same category with Jacob DeWitt winning the state championship in Scriptwriting.

Meyers is the third Long County student to advance to the national conference. Stokes and McNeal advanced to the 2024 conference to represent the state of Georgia. They placed 15th in the nation.

The SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference is June 1-5 and will take place at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.