North Allegheny senior Abby Schappert is headed to the state championships for an advertising design competition after claiming victory in the recent district championships.
The competition is conducted by SkillsUSA, a career and technical student organization that offers local and national competitions for a variety of vocations. The state competition will involve Schappert and about a dozen other students vying to create the best logo and advertising campaign for a fictitious company.
Since elementary school, Schappert said A.W. Beattie Career Center has been their “dream school” so they could compete in the SkillsUSA competitions.
The senior said they had competed in previous years, but they “put a lot of pressure” on themself to advance in this iteration of the competition since it is their last chance before graduation.
To emerge from the local and district rounds of the competition, Schappert created graphics for some hypothetical products and businesses in addition to creating the real logo and poster for the 2025 Bellevue Music Festival.
“It’s really important to me. It makes me feel really happy that I get to do this goal and compete in this thing that I’ve wanted to do all these years,” Schappert said.
They said they appreciated the “encouragement” of Heather Brown, an advertising design instructor at Beattie.
For her part, Brown said Schappert is “dripping with talent” and a “very strong designer.”
At the championship, Brown said she thinks Schappert has a good chance of winning and moving on to the national championships.
“You throw a prompt at that kid, and you’re going to get something great every time,” Brown said.
Schappert will head to Hershey to compete in the state championships April 2-4. After graduation, they said they intend to stick to graphic design while studying at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.