Many Mountlake Terrace High School STEM students participated in the 2020 Washington Technology Student (WTSA) Conference held remotely from March 18 to March 21. The conference took place despite mandated school closures across the state issued by Gov. Jay Inslee.

On Friday, March 3, the Edmonds School District announced that it was suspending all district-wide community events and student activities from March 9 to at least April 12 to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, it appeared that all TSA chapters within the Edmonds School District could not participate in the state conference.

The governor’s school closure order soon resulted in the cancellation of the physical conference, but fortunately, after a period of confusion, the WTSA Board of Directors announced that they would hold a remote state conference over the internet. This allowed the majority of WTSA students to independently prepare and turn in their projects digitally to compete. While it was a struggle for students to digitally turn in their projects, many MTHS students were able to win awards for their school and Terrace’s TSA performed exceptionally overall. 

“It was really difficult for students to complete and submit their competitions, but the fact that they pulled it off is inspiring and shows dedication,”MTHS Advisor James Wilson said. “It is an accomplishment that the conference even occurred, as well as an accomplishment that students adapted to the new format and still succeeded.”

2020 WTSA Remote State Conference Results

Career Prep: 2nd Place – Cole Johnston; 4th Place – Alessandra Serena-Takahashi

Digital Video Production: 4th Place – Rachel Davis, Nicole Francois, Kerensa Suzara, Theresa Van, and Cleo Williams

Essays on Technology: 4th Place – Nolan DeGarlais

Extemporaneous Speech: 2nd Place – Amy Harris

Flight Endurance: 1st Place – Maximus Lockhart

Future Technology Teacher: 2nd Place – Nathaniel Reyes

Promotional Design: 4th Place – Linaly Miyamoto

SciVis: 1st Place – Kate Barry, Bandhna Bedi, Amy Harris, and Sophia Karpowitz; 4th Place – Kyle Lai, Kerensa Suzara, and Cleo Williams 

Structural Design & Engineering: 2nd Place – Elizabeth Hake and Yash Verma; 4th Place – Ryan Bagaason and Lukas Malins

Technology Bowl: 3rd Place – Nolan Degarlais, Ezra Fenwick, and Amy Harris

Technology Problem Solving: 3rd Place – Kai Rosman and Colin Ward; 4th Place – Emma Kerani

Video Game Design: 4th Place – Raio Chea, Kyle Lai, Colin Leen, Logan Tuttle, Rowan Tuttle, and Colin Ward

Webmaster: 5th Place – Sophina Chen, Emma Kerani, Linaly Miyamoto, James Speedy, and Mason Trimbell

— Story by Linaly Miyamoto, Mountlake Terrace High School TSA Reporter and MTHS Hawkeye graphic artist