TSA, a national organization that allows students to grow themselves through leadership, business and technology skills, recently competed at State in Salina from March 27-29.
Kevin Hulsen, the TSA sponsor shares how many skills and activities students experience in the club.
“TSA stands for Technology Student Association,” Hulsen said. “It’s an activity or club that kids can use to participate in technology-related events, ranging anywhere from web design, computer-aided drafting, architecture, all the way to photography and debate, speech, forensics, all that sort of stuff.”
18 students attended state and 14 qualified for nationals, including TSA president junior Sydney Verheaghe.
Competing in TSA consists of either making a project months in advance, or doing an on-site test or project for a specific event which includes interviews with judges.
“It’s awesome because it gives them an extension of what they [students] will learn in the classroom, and how they can put that into actually like a real-world project, and then use that for like competition purposes, and it’s an extension of what they learn outside of a normal school day,” Hulsen said.
There are 34 different events students can participate in, which can range from designing a children’s story, to building an architectural model.
“I competed in nine different events [at State], and it was very hectic and chaotic,” Verheaghe said. “But we did interviews of all the things that we made and we participated in some on-site challenges.”
Verheaghe qualified to go to nationals for three events, Biotechnology, Forensic Science and Fashion Design along with her teammates, junior Brodi Gary and senior Alana Ratzlaff.
TSA nationals will be held in Orlando, Florida from June 26-30.
Though the students have already made their projects and presented them to judges at State, they still have to make changes based on judge feedback to improve their product for nationals.
Students participating in nationals will still have time for relaxation and fun on their trip to Florida.
“I know we’re going to Universal and then we really just get to explore Orlando,” Verheaghe said. “One of the days we might go drive down to the beach.”
Even with all of the fun that TSA has planned for their Orlando trip, Hulsen still wishes for his students to place nationally.
“The last two years we’ve had kids that have gotten up on the stand, which means they’re in the top 10 finalists in the nation, and hopefully we get that again,” Hulsen said. “I would love to see some kids get up there and get recognized by their peers in front of 7,000 plus other kids from around the country.”
