Hey Hey!  What’s goin’ on Hi-Point fans? Hope all is well your way ☺ I am in an incredible mood! I FINALLY finished my senior project in my lab. I seriously have so much stress off me now! My project was a beauty box. The thesis statement on my research paper was “Engineering and electronics benefit the 21st century woman’s goal of looking beautiful.” I had to prove my point, so I made a beauty box. This box is magical! It holds my straightener, my curling iron, my hair dryer, and all the other accessories that I have to use on myself in the morning while getting ready.  Of course I added diamonds and glitter…and painted it purple… It just wouldn’t be “Mikki” without it : ) Sweet, huh? Yeah!
So it feels as if I haven’t blogged, in like, forever. So much has been going on at OHP. Two weeks ago, I went to the SkillsUSA competition. I competed in the video product competition. I talked about how career-technical schools benefit our community, and our students. I didn’t place, but it was the first time I have ever done anything with video, so that’s my excuse, lol.  I had sooo much fun at Skills, though. We stayed in an awesome hotel, we swam, and went to a dance ☺ The best thing about Skills was when these rapper dudes sang a song titled “New Sneakers.” Five other kids and I, out of like 1000 people were the only ones who enjoyed this song. They wanted everyone in the audience to stand up and take their right shoe off and put it in the air. So we stood up and fist pumped with our shoes. Talk about fun, son!  Gladly, I’m one who loves attention, so I was happy all eyes were on me
Sad sad story… I gave my last tours last week ☹ It was the final time I will ever be able to talk to students about how great OHP is, and show them around the school. So I made sure they enjoyed their tour…and was able to teach the lovely Mercedes (other lead ambassador) how to give a fabulous tour, so that she’s ready for next year without us seniors.  : )  Everything is coming to an end for my senior year. I graduate in a month!  I do keep this quote in my head, though, “Graduation is not the end, it’s the beginning.” I like that, it’s perfect.   Bell just rang, so I will talk to you next week!  Ta ta for now!

How is it going? I have been very busy, so I have a lot to talk to you about. I just recently went to the State Competition for SkillsUSA. It was a very fun experience. Even though I didn’t win anything, I still had fun. The school didn’t come out without awards, though. We took a few of those home. We actually have one student who is going to Nationals. So it was a fun experience.

There was this rapper there on the last day who had us take off our shoes and put them in the air, and he sang this song called “New Sneakers” by Raekwon. Then he rapped the ABC’s, which was very cool. But he also did more than rap; he told us that we can be more than what we believe and how SkillsUSA can help us do that.

So I’m going to share something we learned at Skills, and if you say it every morning, it’s sure to start your day right. It goes: “Everybody needs a little enthusiasm, It’s part of life like protoplasm, Like bees to the hive, Its Great to be Alive, Everybody needs a Little Enthusiasm!”

Hello world and all who inhabit it. The time has come for many competitions to begin. I recently went to the SkillsUSA Regional Competition for prepared speech. That was a fun experience. For this competition I had all sorts of time to prepare a speech before the competition, then when I got there, we had to memorize our speeches and without any notes we had to give them. Once I found this out I was a little nervous because I thought I would’ve been able to take my notes up there with me. However, I found some ways to calm my nerves by reviewing the parts of my speech I was having trouble remembering and other things.
So we drew numbers, and I was the sixth one to go out of all the competitors. When my turn came around I went in front of two judges and gave them my speech, and did I mention it had to be between 5-7 minutes, but mine was a little over five *sighs in relief*.
Anyway afterwards we went to the awards ceremony, and I came in 2ND PLACE!!!  That means I get to go to the State Competition on the 23rd and 24th. That means I have to work harder on my speech in order for me to be able to go on to the other competitions like state and then the WORLDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Mwhahahahaha. Well, that is all for now. TTYL

Recently I got to compete in the Regional SkillsUSA competition for Cosmetology at Miami Valley Career-Technical Center in Clayton, OH. I was chosen to go because we had a competition that my class participated in and whoever got first place got to move on and compete at the Regional.
There were many different kids from Ohio Hi-Point that competed the same day in their career field. For my competition, I had to do a haircut from a picture in which i was given and a wet set with three techniques (braids, pin curls, finger waves, roller set). After the hair was dried we had to style out the wet set into something wearable and for the cut in which I was given, I had to follow a picture and style it like it. There were seventeen of us that competed at Regionals from different career centers. After the competition we went to the awards ceremony. I won the bronze medal that qualified me to go to the SkillsUSA State Competition on April 23 and 24th. Ohio Hi-Point has given me the opportunity to compete at the SkillsUSA State competition! Wish me luck!

It’s hard to believe we only have a couple more months left of our senior year. People always say it will go really fast, and I didn’t believe them, but I just got done with two sports seasons and now on to my third, and it’s crazy to think we’re going to be graduating soon.
What it means is we have more things to get ready for: state boards, senior project presentations, and this Saturday, I’m going to a SkillsUSA competition for Cosmetology.
Along with all of this, I have to fill out scholarships and apply to colleges. My advice to juniors, fill out as many scholarships as you can and apply early on and not at the last minute because I don’t want to admit it but I am still uncertain of what I want to do when I graduate. I have ideas but I haven’t made a complete decision yet. As of right now I’m trying to get ready to go to state boards and get my cosmetology license and then find a salon to work at.

It’s definitely a flurry February! How are all my Hi-Point fans enjoying this weather? Ha! Well, it is just crazy in the Electronics Engineering program here at OHP lately. Last week we had Women in Engineering Day. It was very successful. In my lab, we had the girls build a robot butterfly. It was super neat to be the one who taught them how to complete their first electronics engineering task. To see their faces when everything worked when they soldered the last piece together. Very cool, very cool
We have so many competitions coming up in my lab. I’ve been building my slot car for the one competition at Rhodes State that’s coming up next month. I’m for sure going to make mine stand out. I’ve been putting a little “Mikki” in it haha. Mine is all dazzled with jewels and glitter. I can’t wait for my instructor to see how mine has turned out haha. He will be shocked!
Another competition that’s coming up soon is the NRC- National Robotics Challenge. In this competition, my two partners and I have to program a Lego Mind storms robot, to complete task for the Agbot challenge. Then we are all doing our senior projects and getting ready for Skills USA in May! So much to do, so little time. At least I’m keeping busy my senior year   -peace fans!