BOSSIER CITY, La. — Bossier Parish Community College students earned national recognition at the 2026 SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference, highlighted by a second-place finish in Video News Production.
The BPCC Video News team of Alice Hawthorne, Jailyn Guillory, Josh Campbell and Timothy Russell secured the silver medal during the June 1-5 conference in Atlanta. The team advanced to the national competition after winning gold at the SkillsUSA Louisiana State Leadership and Skills Conference. The group was coached by Emily Huntsberger.
“Winning silver at nationals meant so much to me and my teammates,” Guillory said. “We put so much work into our competition and being able to compete against such talented individuals was a huge blessing. Being able to place was a direct result of our advisor coaching us all through it. We were so proud to represent BPCC and Louisiana on a national level.”
The SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference is the largest showcase of career and technical education students in the United States, bringing together thousands of competitors to demonstrate workforce readiness across leadership, technical and skilled trade disciplines.
In addition to the Video News Production team, several BPCC students represented Louisiana at the national conference after winning state championships in their respective categories. Those students included Olivia Russell in T-shirt Design, Cypress Allums in Pin Design, Dewayne Boone in Extemporaneous Speaking, and Mileah Dooley and Angela Henderson in 3D Visualization.