Once again, Mr. Tompkins took his incredible group of students to the State Competition for Technology Student Association (TSA), where eighteen students competed and over six students placed in the competition. The competition was held at the Classic Center with over a hundred teams of students from all over the state of Georgia there to compete in the various events. This is the last big event for the year. LHS had some who performed well with Josh Kahle placing 5th in Dragster Design, Jake Michels placing 5th and Kevin Pietruszka placing 7th in Electrical Applications, and Devon Loy, Jacob Smith, and Debora Park placing 9th in Systems Control Technology. Everyone performed their best, and the only thing Mr.Tompkins said he would change was to “make sure students were on top of competitions and that paperwork was done,” other than that, he had nothing but praises for his students. Unfortunately, no one did well enough to make it to nationals, but he was incredibly proud of how well his students performed. The students also agreed that it was a teachable experience and lots of fun. Devon Loy, a senior at Loganville High School, has been in the club for three years and enjoyed participating in it. Devon enjoyed seeing the different designs and how well people structured their projects such as the bridge designs. The TSA competition has a supportive atmosphere where ideas can be shared. This provides for a “feedback loop” to be created which allows for each competitor to “better develop their own ideas” and thereby increase chances for winning. In the end, they acknowledge that they still have lots to learn and hope to strengthen the feedback loop they have created in order to perform better. For instance, Devon learned that scheduling is very important and that not having a proper schedule or time management can hurt the team as a whole.
HOSA
HOSA, otherwise known as the Future Health Professionals, is an international organization driven with the purpose of promoting healthcare career opportunities and elevating the health care services for people as a whole. On March 14th -16th, Loganville High School’s own HOSA chapter went to the State Leadership Conference in Atlanta. Over the course of those few days, the students participated in workshops, educational symposiums, and conference exhibitors all while lodging in five-star accommodations at the Atlanta Marriott. Along with the participants from LHS, there were over 7,500 other students from all over the state of Georgia. Dr. Carpenter, Loganville High School’s healthcare teacher, is the school’s HOSA chapter leader. With her encouragement and guidance, and their hard work, her students have successfully made it to the International Leadership Conference in June. The group has supported each other and has great companionship. Of their experience during the conference, the students said that the entire atmosphere was “very supportive” and “congested in a good way.” It was bigger than initially expected as some of the students explained, but it was not a problem as they all had the opportunity to make new friends. Dr. Carpenter was proud to say that, “They are a great group [and] represented Loganville well.” As part of the conference, there were presentations and workshops that allowed the group to learn more about healthcare professions and about what maybe the individual students are interested in pursuing following high school. The majority of the Loganville’s HOSA chapter already has plans on building from this experience and hopefully turning it into a career. An interesting part of this leadership experience to the participants was just how many different areas in the various fields that are available, and yet, still under the umbrella of healthcare. The Loganville Future Healthcare Professionals spent months preparing for this three-day conference, and it seems that their hard work has paid off. Two of their members, Kimberly Persaud and Courtney Sandbo, placed in the top three of their event, which means they are advancing to the International Conference in June. They also placed second in the Cert competition. And at this gathering, there were many other victors in different areas. Gage Williams placed sixth in his event and Corina Paun, Isabell Hurd, Valeria Medrano, Aria Washington, and Lori Stewart all contributed to their club’s success. Overall, this year’s group of HOSA students had an extremely successful trip to the State Leadership Conference and prospects are only looking up for their future endeavors.
FCCLA
Over the past few weeks, there have been many clubs that have achieved amazing things, one of which is FCCLA, or Family Career and Consumer Science. We spoke to Ms. Carter, the sponsor of the club and asked about the club and their events. The event was the State Leadership Conference that has a different section of the competition called S.T.A.R. events, or Students Taking Action and Recognition, held each year. The students compete to get enough to land in the top two, which means they will be moving on to the National competition in California this summer. When asked how she ended up as a sponsor for the club, she said it was because it was a part of her requirements as a family career and consumer science teacher. The team consists of six students: Elizabeth Clinton, Emily Jordan, Mashay Grady, India Milos, and Kreasia Williams. The event was held in Atlanta and consisted of three days from March 15th-17th, and each of the students competed in a different event. Emily and Elizabeth competed as a team in one of these STAR events. In this, they had to put together a project using the ideals of reduce, reuse, and recycle with plastic straws. The duo decided to not use plastic stars from November leading up to their competition in March. Elizabeth said that she went into the competition thinking that they would place high enough to make it to nationals, yet got the suspicion that they wouldn't make it; however, to their surprise, they received 2nd place and will be going to the national competition in California. The other students in the club competed in a contest called Digital Dish Delish. In this section, the members were to make a dish with a Georgia grown ingredient and create a dish. The item chosen was a Vidalia onion. We asked a few of the students on their favorite part. For Elizabeth, the best part was meeting new people,“While we were waiting to go to our event, we had to like wait in this small hallway, and we met a lot of people from a junior category, and it was just cool to see new people.” The members described the atmosphere as different, competitive, but all fun. Mashay went as far as to say, “FCCLA is a family and it’s interesting, which is why I keep coming back.”