Trevor Leslie, local senior at Innisfail Jr./Sr. High School went above and beyond in achieving his gold and silver medals in Provincials and Nationals respectively at the Skills Canada competitions this May 10, 11, 14 and 15. Leslie competed in IT and Network Support at the Provincial level as well as IT and Network Systems Administration at the National level; both taking place in Edmonton.
"I met Trevor in grade eight and he knew more about computer networking than I did. I tried to give him learning opportunities and mentors to work with as much as possible. We are all very proud of him," said Rhonda Jessen, teacher.
"The National event was a gruelling 14 hours long over two days during which Trevor displayed an incredibly high level of skill and discipline," said Kathy Harrington, in Student Resources at the school.
"… We are extremely proud of Trevor's accomplishment," added Harrington.
Skills Canada is a nationwide competition birthed in 1994, with a range of events for high school and post-secondary students from welding to auto body repair, baking to graphic design. During the two day event competitors must complete a project designed by professionals in the field chosen.
"Provincials were a lot of fun for me with teamwork environments-then Nationals hit and I realized just how much more there was to be completed in the time given with the solitary setting. It was much more serious," said Leslie of the competitions.
Leslie said spending the last year working with Troy Popma, LANtech at Innisfail Jr./ Sr. has helped him the most with learning techniques and tricks.
"IT is an ongoing hobby, something I enjoy and find interesting. Troy has been a mentor for me ever since I started working with him last summer," said Leslie.
Leslie was tasked with setting up client server environments on a network as well as creating policies documentation and security management.
"Overall Skills Canada was a great learning experience and I would definitely recommend it," said the Grade 12 student.
Graduating this year, Leslie will be going on to pursue the area of IT at NAIT in the fall, taking Instrumentation Engineering Technology which involves designing systems for pressure control and refination.
"It is nice to see him have the success he's achieved he works well with little direction. I can see he has a passion for what he does which is always rewarding," said Popma.
