TSA, under the Career Technical Center (CTC), is a student organization whose main mission is to foster leadership and help students explore their skills in technical fields such as engineering, coding, and architecture.

The recent TSA regionals brought together aspiring innovators, engineers, and leaders from schools across the region. Serving as a platform for students to showcase their talents, the STEM competition led to many achievements from State High

Hosted at Cambria Heights High School on Feb. 3, the 2024 TSA Regionals witnessed a gathering of schools and teams with a variety of categories and competitions.

“The vast majority is long-term projects that you do over the course of a couple of months before the actual competition occurs,” vice president of TSA John Cho said. “These can range from stuff like making a video game, making a flying drone–some others make articles of fashion and stories for children.”

Several standout performances defined TSA Regionals 2024. Notable projects ranged from innovative solutions addressing real-world problems to impressive displays of technical prowess. Among the key moments were instances of teamwork, resilience in the face of challenges, and sportsmanship that embodied the spirit of TSA.

For competition procedures, Cho revealed the different events that unfolded at regionals. “For some events, things will have to be turned in earl, some events are live competitions.” Popular events included Technology Bowl, coding, Board Game Design, Video Game Design, and many more.

Reporter Quantum Qiu participated in the events board game design, software development, and web development. “It’s always pretty fun to go, you spend most of your time with your friends–because for the most part, you do events with your friends,” Qiu said.

Top winners emerged with State High claiming the first five spots in Technology Bowl — John Cho, Noah Hanford, and William Zhang took first place as a team while Joshua Wang placed first place as an individual.

Participants expressed enjoyment of the competition. Always inspired by the students of TSA, President Angie Abraham expressed her endearment to the club. “Every single year, I’m so impressed at how great people do at Regionals,” she said, “I feel like our school gives us such good resources–some of the other schools in our region don’t have the whole CTC program where we have so many resources.”

Abraham shared the many benefits of the club. With its student-led aspect, the club offers the opportunity for the members to grow on their own, separate from the guidance of the school. “[TSA] definitely gives you a taste of independence and problem-solving–on your own, with your teammates…I think it’s really similar to college in that way,”Abraham said. Furthermore, the multitude of competition categories offered within the club gives students the chance to explore beyond just their current interests, “It’s a really good way to get experience if you don’t know what you want.”