MSJ TSA Excels at State Conference

By Staff Writer Ella Chen

MSJ Technology Student Association (TSA) sent 10 members to participate in the TSA California State Conference held in Bakersfield from March 25 to 26. The competition had more than 150 attendees competing in the 30 events.

Students competed in seven events. Sophomore team Jonathan Ko, Karen Li, Amanda Zhang won first place in Fashion Design. A team consisting of Sophomores Sulaiman Ahmed, Kanav Kalucha, Shreya Kochar, and Sabrina Panjwani took first place in Biotechnology Design, and Sophomore team Sulaiman Ahmed, Kanav Kalucha, and Jonathan Ko won the coding event. Sophomore team Kanav Kalucha, Aneesh Sharma, Shivang Shelat were second place in music production, and Sophomore Kanav Kalucha won third place in extemporaneous speech with Sophomore Amogh Ayalasomayajula as a semifinalist. All of these teams mentioned have qualified to the national tournament, which will take place from June 21 to 25.  Ko, who has been the MSJ TSA President for the last two years, said, “Last year at Nationals, MSJ was the most successful chapter in CA. Because of that, we came into the state conference knowing that we had the ability to perform very well. And we did. 11 medals for 10 members.”

The state conference was a Career Technical Education structured tournament centered on technology. Depending on events, team sizes can range from an individual to eight or nine members.  While events were extremely diversified, the main focus was to tie back all prompts to technology and its uses. As a result, students could see the far-reaching implications of technology with a glimpse of the business world as they constructed portfolios and prepared presentations about their projects.

TSA first began on the east coast, where it slowly expanded until CA’s TSA started for the first time about five years ago.  On a global scale, TSA is one of the largest Career Technical Education-oriented organizations with members spanning many nations. Sophomore Jonathan Ko founded the MSJ TSA chapter, and though it is not an official club, it is affiliated with National TSA. This means that the MSJ chapter is allowed to send members to conferences throughout the year.

At the state conference, Ko and Sophomore Kanav Kalucha were elected to the State Officer Board, respectively earning the titles of Sergeant-at-Arms of California TSA and Reporter of California TSA. Kalucha said, “Going forward I hope we can continue the success through Nationals. Looking forward to next year, we’re going to keep our main focus on bringing TSA to as many Mission students as possible, and that will be possible through partnerships with clubs, and perhaps doing events at Mission as outreach. It has been really fun getting to work with so many TSA members, and I’m really excited for MSJ TSA as we go into next year!”

Photo Courtesy MSJ TSA