Tucker Creek Middle Technology Student Association recently returned from an exciting 3-day NC TSA State Conference in Greensboro April 7-9. Fourteen students competed in ten different events against hundreds of students from all around North Carolina. Tucker Creek proudly won awards and/or qualified to compete at TSA Nationals in the following event categories:

 

Tech Bowl 1st Place- Jacob Crocker, Cody Morris, and Kimberly Kearby

Dragster 1st Place-Jacob Jones

Dragster 2nd Place-Ramon Rodriguez

Junior Solar Sprint 2nd Place-Jacob Crocker, Cody Morris, Alexander Windley

Mechanical Engineering 3rd Place-Jacob Jones, Wyatt Deuvall, Ramon Rodriguez

Prepared Speech 2nd Place-Kimberly Kearby

VEX IQ Robotics 1st Place-Zarhia O’Nan, Jacob Jones, Wyatt Deuvall, Jenna Vande Slunt, Ramon Rodriguez, Margaret Hirsch, and Kristina Monk

 

Other students who competed at the state conference were: Connor Swan, Kaleb Gayle, and Aiden Prince. Other events that Tucker Creek participated in, but did not place, included Problem Solving, Cybersecurity, and Website Development.

 

All students who placed have qualified to advance to compete at the TSA NATIONAL CONFERENCE in DALLAS, TEXAS at the end of June! This is the first time Tucker Creek Middle School students will have ever physically attended TSA Nationals, and we are so excited!

 

Students have pushed themselves and succeeded under the leadership of their chapter advisor, Misty Guthrie, staying after school up to 3 days per week to learn about engineering and robotics and work on projects outside of the classroom. Students have also had the opportunity to work alongside and learn from our own local FRC-East engineers. TSA is a nationally recognized Career and Technical Student Organization with over 200,000 members nationally.

 

Tucker Creek Middle has had a TSA Chapter for several years, but this is their first year participating in the VEX IQ Robotics competition. They were able to purchase the equipment to accomplish this through the generosity of an Officer Spouses Club grant which was applied for and received by Guthrie at the end of the last school year.

 

Craven County Schools Career and Technical Education department will be helping to cover transportation costs and the registration fees for students placing 1st at the State Conference. Our Tucker Creek TSA is currently seeking sponsorships to help cover the remaining cost of traveling to Dallas, including hotel and transportation and to assist with the costs of chaperones attending as well. If you are interested in sponsoring our Tucker Creek TSA Chapter for this event, please contact Misty Guthrie at misty.guthrie@cravenk12.org.