Rising ninth-grader Mahlon Manson and seventh-grader Varuna Peeblson of the Alberton Panthers robotics team brought home silver medals from the 2025 SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta.

This prestigious event is the largest gathering of America’s future skilled workforce, celebrating excellence in career and technical education. With more than 17,500 attendees, including students, instructors, industry leaders and government officials, the weeklong conference culminates in the SkillsUSA Championships, where over 6,500 state champions compete in 114 skill and leadership contests.

To qualify for nationals, Manson and Peeblson first competed at the Montana SkillsUSA competition in Great Falls in April, where they earned gold in the Middle School Robotics: Urban Search and Rescue category. That win secured their place representing Montana at the national level.

Their national competition involved six rigorous challenges: 

Navigation Course: Guiding their robot through an obstacle course within a time limit. 

Communication and Collaboration Challenge: Manson (the driver) followed verbal cues from Peeblson (the spotter) to touch a target and dispose of a mock ordinance. 

Camera Navigation Challenge: Using onboard cameras, Manson maneuvered the robot through an HVAC-style duct maze to identify an object and return. 

Arm Skill Challenge: Retrieving mock ordnances from three mailboxes — each using a different mounting mechanism. 

Chassis Challenge: Navigating the robot across ramps and rough terrain under a time constraint. 

Main Field Challenge: In a timed six-minute simulation of an urban disaster zone, the team located and safely disposed of scattered mock ordnances.

This year, 11 middle school teams from across the U.S. and its territories competed in Manson and Peeblson's category. In total, 43 teams from middle school, high school and post-secondary programs took part in the Urban Search and Rescue robotics competitions.

Manson and Peeblson designed and built a custom robot specifically for Urban Search and Rescue. Its purpose was to locate and safely neutralize simulated explosive devices in a mock disaster environment. 

The team was coached by Nathan Morris, Alberton's robotics and industrial technology instructor, along with Patrick Manson. Both serve as advisors for the Alberton SkillsUSA Robotics Team and two FIRST Tech Challenge robotics teams.

Morris and Patrick Manson accompanied the students to Atlanta. Montana sent about 60 students to the national competition, joining nearly 18,000 competitors.

This marks Mahlon Manson’s second consecutive year qualifying for Nationals. Unfortunately, funding prevented the team from attending last year. In addition to robotics, Alberton High School has sent students to state-level competitions in welding, welding sculpture and technical drafting.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) is alive and thriving in Alberton, thanks to passionate educators like Nathan Morris and dedicated students like Manson and Peeblson.

SkillsUSA is a national nonprofit partnership of students, teachers, and industry leaders working together to ensure America has a highly skilled workforce. The organization supports career and technical education at the middle school, high school and collegiate levels.