A blank piece of paper holds many possibilities.

In the hands of Century High School senior Abby Anderson, it can sell a product or promote the contents of a magazine.

She's turned a piece of paper into a mock-up advertisement and magazine cover in two separate Skills USA competitions. The competition is for career and vocational education students to demonstrate their subject knowledge and learn leadership and other career skills.

"It's not a new concept," adviser Joel Gustafson said. "Business students have DECA and Future Business Leaders of America. It gives leadership and job skills."

Anderson studies commercial art at the Bismarck Public Schools' career and technical center. The center offers classes to students in Bismarck, Mandan and surrounding area. Electronics, automotive, welding, carpentry and horticulture are some of the areas in which students can with Skills USA.

"It's great," Anderson said. "You meet people from all over the state."

It gives her and other students a chance to network with other students and with business leaders who come to talk with them, she said. At the national competition, which she has gone to as an observer twice, she has met people from across the country.

The competitions at state and national levels come later in the school year, and there are more participants than slots available to compete.

"We have roughly 100 students in electronics, and we can have 10 representatives at state," Gustafson said. If students place first, they go to the national competition in Kansas City, Mo., and if they place second, they go as an observer.

Winning competitions can earn students scholarships. That's one of the reasons Bismarck High School senior Albert Reed likes Skills USA. He competes in technical math. It involves a lot of trigonometry and technical word problems. He plans to go to South Dakota State University to study electrical engineering. Skills USA and the classes at the technical center are preparing him for the future.

"It means just about my life," he said. "I would rather have something to do with my hands than read about it in books."

Until the competition, the students meet weekly on Tuesdays at the vocation center at Bismarck State College. They'll meet with other students in their competition category and get time to brush up on skills, listen to guest speakers and do community service.

Many of the Skills USA groups are involved in the Christmas in the Park displays. Welding makes the displays, autobody paints them and arts and electronics decorate the displays, Gustafson said.

Ideally, students can take the skills they learn through Skills USA and apply them in the work force. Anderson is working at Community Access Television through a cooperative program so she can work toward Apple computer certification.

"The opportunities are so much more than a track or football team," she said. "You can use these skills."

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)