With the start of a new school year comes not only new beginnings for students, teachers, and classes but new beginnings for clubs as well. Major clubs at North Creek High School such as DECA and FBLA are some of the most well-known clubs and are CTSOs (Career and Technical Student Organizations).
Another significant CTSO at NCHS is the Technology Student Association (TSA) which focuses on “technology, leadership, and the arts” TSA Vice President Anvi Karpoor said. “It’s basically a super stem-focused student organization where we prepare events and compete at the state and national levels for recognition.”
With a wide range of competitive events from music production to video game design, students who compete in TSA get to explore their interests in not only technology but a range of competitive events. The first competitions for NCHS TSA are called tiebreakers, exclusive to NCHS. “It’s only a North Creek thing because there are event limits for how many teams we can send to state,” Karpoor said.”
NCHS tiebreakers will be held in November and will decide which teams get to compete at state. State, being held in Spokane in early April this year is “really the first true round of competition with professional judges and rubrics,” Karpoor said. With limited spots on who can win at the state competition, only the top three winners of each event are allowed to travel to compete at the national conference held in Nashville, Tennessee this June.
Though there are many competitions to TSA, a major benefit to joining TSA includes improving your skills in a wide range of subjects. “You learn so many different topics from technology to leadership and design,” Karpoor said, “you can network with other students, industry professionals, and build some really great friendships.” What makes TSA different from clubs such as DECA or HOSA? “TSA specializes in technology-oriented events, but we also have events relating to business, marketing, and biology,” Karpoor said.
Though you may be uninterested in joining, the skills you build in TSA can be applied in not only competitive events but your everyday life, improving your confidence and communication skills. TSA not only allows students to improve soft skills for their everyday life but it allows them to let their creativity shine, being able to showcase their talents and skills through different competitive events and winning awards for it.
