By rdnewsNOW staff

aces in the kitchen and with computers

Olympic champ surprises Skills Alberta winners from Red Deer

Jun 9, 2020 | 5:07 PM

A pair of Red Deer students captured Gold medals in the recent edition of Skills Alberta’s annual competition. The victories earned them kudos from another medalist – Olympic Bobsleigh pilot Justin Kripps.

Jack Lerouge, a grade ten student at Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School, beat out 15 competitors from across the province in the Culinary Arts division by calmly preparing ginger lime roasted chicken with Thai red curry vegetables and black sesame rice cakes in front of a panel of judges including professional chefs.

“Because the competition was virtual and a lot of the judging was based on presentation, I decided to make a dish that had lots of colours and contrasts,” said Lerouge, “I thought the idea of a virtual competition was cool, and it was great that Skills was able to get an event like this to happen, considering the current circumstances. I liked that I had the opportunity to choose what I wanted to make and I found myself more at ease cooking in my own kitchen.

Bryce Corrin, a grade twelve student at Hunting Hills high school, also won Gold. Corrin’s win came in the IT Office Software Applications division, where competitors were asked to use the full range of Microsoft Office applications to create promotional materials for a fictitious Drive-in theatre.

“I have been a big movie buff ever since I was little so I was naturally very pleased to see that the fictitious company scenario this year was a drive-in movie theatre,” said Corrin. “For over a year I worked at the regular movie theatre here in Red Deer so overall I had a really well rounded idea about what would appeal to the average customer on the poster.”

Prevention, Access, Recovery, and Coordination

Safe Harbour officially hands over shelter keys, establishes accessible navigation hub

12h ago

lacombe and sylvan lake

December 2025 (un)employment data released for Alberta sub-regions

14h ago

21 years with WCPS

Darcy Blum appointed principal of Lacombe Outreach School

15h ago

Thanks to program partner RBC, this week the two winners were welcomed into the Gold medal club by 2018 Olympic Gold Medalist Kripps.

The bobsleigh pilot is an RBC Olympian, which involves helping the bank with local community partnerships. RBC is one of the Skills Alberta partners that quickly provided flexible funding, so that the event could go virtual and not be cancelled.

When a handful of the winners projects were shown to Kripps, he earmarked a few for special congratulations. In each personalized message Kripps encouraged the students to keep pursuing their passions, and to try to use pandemic-related downtime in a positive way.

The competition – officially called Skills Alberta Virtual Competition: a Showcase for Secondary Students – was held virtually due to the pandemic. It involved 300 students from 78 Alberta secondary schools.

The competition gives students the ability to showcase skills they learned through their career and technology studies classes.

The skills on display ranged from robotics to carpentry to animation to baking. Lerouge and Corrin were the only Gold medal winners from Red Deer.

(Story submitted by Brian Findlay)