(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas) – Student and faculty advisors from nine of Texas State Technical College’s campuses are gathered in Corpus Christi for the 2026 SkillsUSA Postsecondary Leadership and Skills Conference.
The conference, which includes a range of contests that students will participate in, takes place from Wednesday, April 8, to Saturday, April 11.
“We expect great success and a wonderful experience as our TSTC students from across the state show off their skills and what it means to be ‘technically better,’” said Renee Blackshear, a SkillsUSA coordinator for the Abilene and Brownwood campuses along with online students.
The TeamWorks event kicked off Wednesday morning in a parking lot outside the Hillard Center in downtown Corpus Christi. TSTC is represented by two Harlingen campus teams and a Waco campus team. Students have two days to build a planned project using carpentry, electrical, masonry and plumbing skills.
The conference’s traditional opening ceremony was held Wednesday night at the Hillard Center. The keynote speaker was Adrian Nacianceno, an aviation maintenance instructor at the Harlingen campus and a former SkillsUSA Texas gold medalist and national conference competitor. Nacianceno is a graduate of Edinburg North High School.
“Your hard work and dedication will pay off,” he told the audience. “In these next few days, you will learn about the competition, about the employers and about yourself; your strengths and weaknesses, your opportunities and upcoming challenges. You may even make new friends. But from here on out, you can only grow and sharpen your skills. You are the gatekeepers to your better tomorrow.”
Justin Bruce, of Austin, will represent the Williamson County campus on a three-person team in the CNC 3-Axis Milling Programmer contest on Thursday afternoon. He said he is motivated by competition in the academic realm going back to his marching band days in high school.
“I feel more prepared today than I did a week ago,” Bruce said. “I’m confident I will perform to a level of expectation.”
Vaughn Scott, of Denton, will represent the Waco campus in the Automotive Service Technology contest taking place on Thursday afternoon. He credits his passion for fast cars and knowing he wanted to pursue the automotive field before he enrolled in TSTC as some of his competitive advantages.
“Being one of the younger kids, it would be cool if I placed,” Scott said.
Fort Bend County campus students Dominic Limone, of Richmond, will team with second-time SkillsUSA Texas participant Eduardo Gonzalez, of Rosenberg, in the Robotics and Automation Technology contest on Thursday afternoon. Limone said attending the conference was the first time he has been south of Houston.
Limone said his work using conveyor belts, sensors and programmable logic controllers in his fifth-semester Capstone project should help himself and Gonzalez in the contest.
“I want to do good enough that vendors will want to talk to me if I do well,” Limone said. “I want to have fun and make my instructor proud. We are not just representing the Robotics and Automation program, but we are representing Fort Bend County.”
Angel Casillas, of Weslaco, is part of a three-student Welding Fabrication team representing the Harlingen campus. The team is also made up of Joseph Lubuzzetta and Arturo Saldivar, and will all compete on Friday.
“Everything we have learned comes into play,” he said. “We will be prepared for any project.”
The awards ceremony will take place on Saturday morning at the Hillard Center.
For more information on Skills USA Texas, go to skillsusatx.org.
For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.