Chapel Hill High School senior Riley Johnson was the first high school student to ever represent the United States in the WorldSkills Competition, a technical skills event that allows individuals to compete using their individualized skills.
This year, the competition was held in Abu Dhabi from October 14-19 and included a range of skills to be showcased, and takes the highest skilled student from each country to compete for first place.
Johnson represented the United States in web design, which requires the ability to use professional grade graphic design and code in different software programs.
The first day of the competition was spent on developing themes and plugins in WordPress. On second day, the participants worked on Laravel, a free Hypertext Processing (PHP) web framework that obtains and updates information.
The third day was devoted to game development in Javascript canvas, and Johnson was most proud of the rocketship game he created. On the final day of the conference, the competitors participated in a team challenge to create a website for the Sheikh Zayed mosque.
“I think the most valuable thing was getting to meet some of the best developers from around the world,” he said.
Johnson began his journey to reach the competition at an early age and continued developing his skill with each year.
“I started doing computer programming in the third grade using Javascript and Turtle programming. I then moved onto other languages such as PHP, Python and Swift. Now that I am in high school, I work professionally as a web developer,” Johnson said.
The process that Johnson went through to qualify for the competition was not easy. “In order to qualify for this competition, I had to compete in Skills USA and win first in the state and then national level. Then I had to beat out the collegiate level gold medalist to get a spot on the team,” Johnson said.
The ability to perform on a professional level is necessary for this competition, and as a result Johnson states that it posed a “significant challenge,” but “further developed” his skill.
In his division, Johnson was matched against individuals who trained many years prior to this event; however, despite the competitiveness, he was ready to take on the challenge.
Before leaving on his trip, Johnson commented on his feelings towards the experience.
“I love competing, and no matter how well I do, I am proud to say that I had the opportunity to represent the United States,” he said.
Johnson also noted the beneficial impact that the school’s Academy of Information Technology has had on him, as it contributed to his success in the field of web design.
Chapel Hill web design teacher Garrison Reed praised Johnson’s skill.
“[Johnson] has a seemingly endless thirst for knowledge and skill attainment, which is coupled with the desire to apply this learning to his immediate contexts,” Reed said. “He presents himself with focus, maturity and sincerity.”
