“TSA? What do you do in an airport security club?”

While this might be the initial thought that comes to one’s mind when hearing the name, the acronym TSA at North Penn does not stand for Transportation Security Administration, but rather, TSA is the Technology Student Association. TSA is an organization that is offered in schools nationwide, and it aims to increase student excitement involving STEM. It wouldn’t be a surprise if it does not sound familiar; in fact, TSA at North Penn was only recovered and reestablished this school year. But despite this, members of TSA were able to surpass their goal of simple participation in Regionals by having 17 groups qualify for States; a feat they most certainly were not expecting, given the recent rebirth of the club. 

“[In TSA,] there are about 40 different events. Most of them are STEM related, but there’s art and fashion, design with engineering, there’s video and media presentation, and then you have more STEM focused [events] like computer science and biology,” Monita Rijal, the outreach officer, explained. “Students pick events they’re interested in and they have to do at least three [projects.] You compete at the regional level and if you qualify, you will compete at the state level for your given event.”

Seeing as there are so many complex levels to TSA, starting up the club again was no easy task. From obtaining clearance to restart, to spreading the word around the school, and then to actually hosting workshops, the formation of this club required a great deal of time and effort.

“Our president is Amanda Lee, she helped start the club at Pennbrook, and our advisor is Mr. Waddington, he’s one of the engineering teachers,” Rijal said. “The club existed before [at the high school], then it went obsolete during COVID, and then Amanda and Mr. Waddington started it back up this year, so this is kind of our first year running.”

At the beginning of the school year, Rijal chose three different events for her three projects. In the Regional competition which took place on January 24th, she qualified for States in both her biotechnology presentation and web design project. 

“One of my projects is biotech [focused], and that is a tri-fold presentation and a written report we put together,” Rijal shared. “My other event is web design, in which my group built a website and there was a theme that had to be community focused. We built a website for our school with information about clubs that exist and an AI chat bot that can help you find what club would be best for you. And then our third [project] was engineering design. We built a sensor on a hand to control a 3D hologram that projects organs.”

Originality among projects is necessary in order for them to be unique when compared to their competitors, and the TSA organization is helpful in allowing students the creative liberty to design whatever they would like. However, this wide window of free rein requires greater dedication of time or more specific tools and parts.  

“There are themes that give you guidelines, but you want to be as creative as you can because otherwise, all the projects are redundant and you are not going to qualify,” Rijal stated. “We started in October, and we really picked up our work in November and December, and then we had regionals in January. It can get expensive sometimes, but North Penn is really helpful in providing electronic parts that are needed, but other than that, the other small components are less than $20.”

In the regional TSA competition, students of North Penn were given a taste of the competition atmosphere while also the chance to observe aspects to other schools’ projects that they could eventually implicate and expand upon in their own work. Not knowing what to expect, the students walked in with a goal of just trying their best, and left with more qualifications than they believed possible. 

“If you get top 12 [at Regionals] you will move on to States and there are around 30 groups in every event. Out of the 22 [North Penn students] that went to Regionals, 17 qualified for States,” Rijal stated. “It is still our first year back as a club, so just the fact that we were able to send all these teams to States is really amazing. We hope that each group has a project that places and goes to Nationals, but at the end of the day, it’s all about coming together, learning about your events, preparing for competing next year, and having fun.”

With mounting excitement, the students are arranging for their State competition which is being held at Seven Springs in Pittsburg from April 15th to the 18th. While Nationals would be an amazing addition to the agenda, the North Penn TSA officers are grateful for their experiences so far, and are beginning to look towards next year, where they are focusing on increasing the number of members in the club. 

“There’s a place for everyone at TSA. Even if you’re not interested in STEM, [there’s] coding, engineering design, circuits, and fashion technology…so there’s really something for everyone,” Rijal concluded.