TSA Leadership Conference

Nolan DeGarlais

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On Tuesday, November 10th, over twenty members of the Brier Terrace Technology Student Association (TSA) attended the Washington Technology Student Association leadership conference at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond. At this conference they were introduced to the WTSA state officers, learned about the competitive events TSA has to offer, and learned how to be an effective chapter officer.

The conference began with an introduction from the Washington TSA state officer team, which included Haeley Johnston, the state’s TSA president; Brendan Jacobsen, the vice-president; Katerina Schwab, the secretary; Brandon Gabor, the treasurer; Lydia Kim, the reporter, and Nadia Smith, the sergeant-at-arms.

After the introduction, the members of the TSA were split into groups and did icebreaker activities. These icebreakers included activities such as having three objects and having to come up with as many uses for those objects as possible, and having to control a chapter advisor like they are a voice-controlled robot and making them put a piece of paper into an envelope. “I thought the icebreaker activities were unique and fun,” said eighth grader Dylan Breuer.

Next, the TSA students got into groups of five and made spaghetti cantilevers. A cantilever is like a bridge, except it is only connected by one side, while a bridge is connected by two. The challenge was to see who could build their cantilever the farthest outwards without the cantilever hitting the floor. The TSA students were given only a bundle of raw spaghetti and duct tape to build the cantilevers of the end of their tables. “If we were to do this again, I would make a larger suspension for it (the cantilever),” said Dylan Breuer.

After lunch, our TSA was split into those who were not a part of the TSA last year and those who were. Those who were in the TSA last year went to a lesson led by Haeley Johnston and Nadia Smith about how to be both an effective officer for your TSA chapter, and an effective state officer. Those who were not in the TSA last year played TSA event bingo, where the events were listed on a bingo sheet and the descriptions of the events were put on the screen.

The ultimate goal of this conference was to prepare students for the year in TSA to come. Whether they learned how to be an effective chapter officer, or learned more about the TSA events, the conference appears to have succeeded in that goal. “I feel confident,” said Dylan Breuer.

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