Shoreline TSA teams place high at national competition

Cascade TSA Team L-R: Andrew Edwards, Isabell Michi,
Elena Tapia, advisor Fergus Temporada and India Sanborn.
Photo courtesy Shoreline Schools

While most students were starting their summer vacations, a group of 10 students from Cascade K-8 and Shorecrest High School were facing some tough competition from over 8,000 other middle and high school students at the National Technology Student Association (TSA) Conference in Orlando, Florida on June 21-25.

The four students from Cascade and six from Shorecrest earned the opportunity to represent their schools and compete at the conference after placing high in various events at the state TSA competition earlier in the year.

While the competition was definitely tougher at the national level, the Cascade and Shorecrest students were up to the challenge.

The Cascade K-8 video game design team, represented at the national conference by Elena Tapia and Andrew Edwards, took home the first place trophy in Middle School Video Game Design. The team’s role-playing game “Blackfire” was designed and created by Tapia, Edwards, Jaeden Caldwell, Jack Cameron, Molly Grauer and Liam Prestia throughout this past school year.

Shorecrest TSA Team L-R: Advisor Kari Potter, Henry Zlab, Myles Parent,
Izzy Davis, Kai Brook, Alex Resha, Drew Gawlinski and advisor Emily Slack
Photo courtesy Shoreline Schools

Shorecrest’s technology problem-solving team of Alex Resha Myles Parent were top 10 finalists in the High School Problem-Solving Competition, where participants were given a challenge on site, then have a specific amount of time to design and test a prototype to solve the challenge

In addition to the competitions, students also participated in learning workshops and business meetings with students from all over the country, as well as Turkey, Japan and Germany.

“The leadership and management skills that the TSA has to offer have guided me through structuring and completing many projects both inside and outside of school, improving both my grades and my satisfaction with my work,” said Edwards. 

“Overall, I would recommend the TSA to any student who aspires to effectively express their talents… and maybe even get a cool trophy!”

Since 1978, TSA has been working with students in technology courses to help students learn to compete, and lead in technology fields. TSA has chapters in 49 States, and 250,000 members in middle and high schools across the country. Washington currently has the largest growth in middle school level TSA programs.