This year Marietta Middle and High Schools have brought in a new opportunity for students: the Technology Student Association, or TSA for short. TSA is the STEM division of CareerTech. The organization’s mission is to enhance personal development, leadership, and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics through activities, competitions, and other related programs.
TSA, sponsored by Sharon Manley in the high school and Chris Dobbins in the middle school, meets in the afternoons after classes have dismissed for the day.
“Students in TSA learn leadership skills and compete in competitions on a wide range of topics,” said Manley, “from building a robot to compete with certain skills, to designing and fabricating a dress fit to be worn on the Emmy red carpet.”
Officers have been elected to serve in both student groups. In the high school, those officers include President Kaygan Staton, Vice President Braxton Ferguson, Secretary Estefany Sanchez, Treasurer Bryan Tucker, Reporter Alexis Creasman, and Representative Keagan Balch.
Middle school officers are President Scarlet Vivyan, Vice President Andrew Perkins, Treasurer Riley Dougherty, Secretary Cassi Stewart, Reporter Cynthia Lopez, and Sergeant in Arms J.J. Gerlach.
Middle school students have attended two conferences to-date and are working on projects for competition. One of the conferences, the LEAD Conference was as one-day training opportunity for TSA officer teams and advisors that covered a variety of topics.
Attendees learned how to conduct effect meeting and perform effectively as officers. They also received information regarding upcoming competitive events, which include everything from coding and drone works to robotics and structural engineering, with plenty of others in between.
“This is our first year for TSA, so it’s a work in progress,” said Dobbins. “Our plan is to learn and grow a little each year.”
High school students attended Fall Leadership Conference, an annual conference for members to gain the leadership skills necessary to help guide their chapters throughout the year.
In addition to leadership workshops, members will have the opportunity to explore different careers through an interactive industry panel, take part in a STEM challenge, network with other TSA members, and participate in community service activities.
High school students are hard at work on their competitive projects, which include cybersecurity, flight and aviation, photography, robotics, podcasts, fabrication, drone coding, and webpage design, among others.
Just one of many great things about TSA is that it helps to teach and reinforce many skill sets that can prove valuable in today’s job market, yet at the same time allow students to enjoy what they’re doing.
“TSA teaches problem-solving skills,” explained high school student Bryan Tucker as he and partners Braxton Ferguson and Samuel Jaquez worked to strip parts from old robots in order to build their competitive project, a robot that will perform the assigned task of launching lightweight plastic disks into a basket.
“Sometimes there is a lot of trial and error involved,” he continued. “But I really enjoy the hands-on projects, and it’s a lot of fun when you figure out how to make things work like you want them to.”