The Technology Student Association (TSA) won multiple competitions which qualified them for the national championship, Vice President Eusern, Ng said. The TSA won places in drone, video game design, coding, digital video production, and debating technological issues, Ng said.
TSA was recognized for its accomplishments by the school board on March 11th, Ng said. This was due to their accomplishments in winning competitions, Ng said.
“So they got first place in drone challenge, and then they got first place in video game design for two years in a row now, and then second place in coding, third place in digital video production, and fifth place in debating technological issues,” Ng said.
TSA won these competitions because the members work together well, Ng said. Usually, one person works by themselves, but they’ll still communicate with each other to improve, Ng said.
“I think the best way to work on something right is to get different viewpoints, so I think it’s a lot of collaboration and the bond that they form,” Ng said.
For the video game design competition, the candidates have a set amount of time to code a game which the judges will then play and compare against competitors, Ng said. For digital video production, you film and edit videos, Ng said.
“ And then the debating part – you’re given an issue and then you have to either defend yes or no,” Ng said.
Senior Jeremiah De Guzman competed in two TSA regional conferences, including a Computer Aided Design (CAD) engineering competition last year, Guzman said. The prompt was to build something in CAD based on a design and accurately dimension it, he said.
“I just attended the regional conferences they have for California,” Guzman said. “Last year it was at Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton. This year it was at Mountain House.”
In TSA, people learn about how to work with a team, communication, task setting, and planning, Guzman said. There are some solo competitions, but if you’re trying to do a team-based competition, you’ll learn how to work with a team, Guzman said.
“Since you have a set competition, you really have to spend a good amount of time working with these technologies and making sure you do your best,” Guzman said.
TSA does not have an official training program for its members, competition manager, and California state secretary for TSA, Spencer Tran said.
“We’re hoping to have a better system in place to have competitions to be better,” Tran said. “Currently we have some after-school meetings and work days to organize everything and make sure everyone’s on track.”
As the California State Secretary for TSA, Tran is planning to create state competitions, he said.
“Right now California is divided into two, NorCal and SoCal,” Tran said. “We currently have regional competitions for NorCal and regional competitions for SoCal and then we compare the scores for both and whoever gets a higher score goes to nationals. Instead, next year we’re planning to host a statewide competition.”
Joining the club helps when it comes to college applications, Tran said.
“I think it’s probably one of my higher extracurriculars. (…) It’s a good chance you can also do a lot of competitions,” Tran said. “I think it certainly helps if you score and place really high on the competitions because you can go to nationals and regionals.”
Ever since joining the club Tran has been able to connect with a lot more people, Tran said.
“Honestly the people in the club are amazing, I’ve grown to be really close with them.”