National Codes

EAST PEORIA ­— Illinois Central College doesn’t anticipate quiet summers. Facility renovation, athletics, and the multitude of summer courses are few of many things going on in the interim of the spring and fall semesters.

One summertime success for ICC was earned by student work in the SkillsUSA group. Students Nathaniel Riehl, 27, and Adam Bollinger, 20, took gold and bronze medals respectively at the 50th annual SkillsUSA competition in Kansas City.

The competition is for high school and college students, focusing on educational and technical programs to build future careers. This year’s competition boasted more than 350,000 students from around the nation in a space that occupies “more than 16 football fields” according to the SkillsUSA web page.

Riehl, a part-time student and network systems engineer at ICC, took his gold medal in computer programming. Using only one textbook reference, he and his competitors created two computer programs in or under eight hour’s time.

“I stayed the entire time and made sure everything was perfect,” Riehl acknowledged, “and most of us who did were successful.”

Riehl’s winning programs are quite simple: a payroll program and an online currency converter.

“What the really difficult part is,” he said, “is what’s behind the scenes, what the user does and cannot see.”

Bollinger, now at Illinois State University, took his bronze medal in Internetworking. This division includes many computer-related tasks in succession, such as troubleshooting and cable-making. According to Peoria Journal Star, he is to be interviewed this fall for a chance to compete at the world competition in Brazil next year.

Riehl will be continuing to work at ICC while he works towards his goal of a Bachelor’s degree in software engineering from U of I Springfield. He can be found in the East Peoria Campus’ Technology Help Center, while Bollinger works on his craft elsewhere. Both men have major accomplishments for themselves and for the now-nationally-ranked technical program at ICC.