With two top five finalists, and a state qualifying audio podcasting team, it's safe to say TJ’s first trip to TSA was successful. photo by Mark Mallaney
TJ’s newest student chapter showed out at their state conference.
Exciting new events are common at Thomas Jefferson High School, as there are many different opportunities for students to explore something new. In October of 2025, Mark Mallaney, TJ’s own Audio Production teacher, made the decision to partner with the Technology Student Association (TSA). TSA is a national student organization for high school and middle school students who are engaged in anything STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) related activities. The organization evidently provides huge opportunities for students within TJ who have interest in the fields that TSA aligns with. Like other student organizations, TSA has competitions. Earlier in February, the first ever members of TJ’s chapter of TSA went up to the Gaylord of the Rockies for the Colorado state conference.
TSA is an incredibly popular student organization, boasting more than 2,700 school based units (or chapters) nationwide and even chapters in Germany. In Colorado, TSA has over 94 different chapters within high schools and middle schools. As a STEAM focused organization, TSA does its best to account for all aspects of interests that their members may have, as of 2024, they report having over 70 competitions nationally. Some of these events include: animatronics, children’s book design, drone flying, and even events of forensics and drone racing, with over 300,000 high school and middle school students as members.
Competitions all over the country are competitive and diverse, on February 19th, Mallaney and seven students; senior Sony Calhoun, junior Brooklyn Darden, senior Kay Le, junior Kai Ossian, senior Kaden Pedigo, senior Kai Rogers, and junior Josh White put their best foot forward and saw what TSA’s state conference had to offer. TJ’s competitors consisted of two music production teams and one podcasting team, all of whom made the semifinals, and the two music production teams both placed top five in the state. When asked their opinion on the turnout of competitions, each participant reported positive things all around. “I think that competitions went great, especially since this is our first year at TJ doing TSA. The competitions, the venue, they were all a really great experience,” said Le.
While opinions on their favorite parts of TSA differed from competitor to competitor, many shared the sentiment that meeting new, like minded people was a significant positive in their trip, along with the hotel’s amenities. The Gaylord offers an incredible water resort that provides full access to all participants of TSA. While there were ample opportunities for fun, TSA offers an equal amount of opportunities for learning, for example, many different workshops and showcases for competitors and advisors to sit in on. Within the three days of conference and competition, TSA’s organizers ensured to keep their schedules packed with activity.
TJ’s competitors worked tirelessly on their submissions for months, TSA provides prompts for most competitions, specifically the ones created before the conference. Through the countless hours put into these projects, every competitor had something positive to say after the fact. “I’m happy with the song, I wish we would have placed in the top three but for our first year, it went great,” said Calhoun. Mallaney also had high praise, “I really enjoyed the conference, the competitions and the venues.” The first year of a chapter is not always the smoothest landing, while TJ has had ample experience within student organizations (SkillsUSA and DECA), TSA was definitely a new and daunting organization for everyone involved, however, each participant found bravery in the unknown and pushed themselves to give the best first impression of TJ possible. This first group of competitors has the ability to bestow important knowledge upon chapter members in the future; White advises future competitors to “start earlier.” There are many different aspects to the judging process and getting a head start is integral for pieces that place.
TSA will be open for any students enrolled in any Careers and Communication Technology (CCT) courses hopeful to try their hand at competing at TJ. Good luck, future competitors, and a formal welcome to TJ TSA.
