TSA Nationals offered 77 total events for high school and middle school students.

The conference this year was one of the largest to date, with more than 3,000 competitors and 7,000 attendees (competitors, judges, advisers and guests).

Pennsylvania TSA Region 8 Coordinator and Northern Cambria adviser Matthew Kline said, “It is impressive that with a national conference as big as this one, Pennsylvania and Region 8 once again did outstanding. Our region, a small part of the entire nation, placed in 36% of all the possible events, with four national champions. This is once again a testament of the hard work our students put in throughout the year to be the best and with the tough competition at regionals and states pushes these students.”

Four Northern Cambria high school students were inducted into the TSA Honor Society (with only 60 students being inducted nationally and seven total from Pennsylvania). They are Haley Pattison, CJ Booterbaugh, Mikey Konitsky and Chris Yahner.

Junior Solar Sprint National Champions from Northern Cambria Middle School are (from left): Maya Friedman, Emmy McCrachen and Ava Kirsch. Courtesy photo

A total of 14 high school and middle school students from Northern Cambria traveled to the conference, and all 14 students placed in the top 10 in the nation, including the middle school chapter winning the National Championship in Junior Solar Sprint.

The Technology Student Association is a national organization that focuses on preparing students to be leaders in the technical world. Students who participate in TSA learn new technical skills, along with time management, teamwork and mechanical drawing.

A group of sixth grade girls won the state championship, becoming the first group of sixth graders from NC to compete at the national conference. Videos of the competition are available on Northern Cambria’s TSA Facebook page.

Doug Pauley from Bedford High School was recognized as Pennsylvania High School Adviser of the year.

Area Region 8 schools in the top 10 at the National Conference include:

Northern Cambria Middle School — first, Junior Solar Sprint; fourth, Problem Solving; fourth, Structural Engineering; eighth, Mechanical Engineering.

Northern Cambria High School — second, Senior Solar Sprint; third, Promotional Design, Haley Pattison; seventh, Transportation Modeling, Alyssa Yahner; eighth, Structural Design and Engineering.

Bedford High School — fifth, Architectural Design.

Richland High School — fifth, Engineer­­ing De­­sign; sixth, Biotechnology Design; sixth, Senior Solar Sprint; ninth, Technology Problem Solving.

Richland Junior High School — fourth, Technical Design; fifth, Forensic Technology; fifth, Promotional Marketing, Ireland Howard; eighth, Foundations of Information Technology, Emily Howard-Geiser.

Cambria Heights High School, Patton — seventh, Audio Podcasting.

Cambria Heights Middle School — first, Inventions & Innovations.

Westmont Hilltop Junior-Senior High School — first, Virtual Reality Visualization; third, Video Game Design.

Park Forest Middle School — first, STEM Animation; second, Children’s Stories; third, Community Service Video; third, Tech Bowl; fifth, Mechanical Engineering; sixth, Mass Production; eighth, Microcontroller Design; eighth, Technical Design; ninth, Inventions & Innovations.

State College Area High School — second, Board Game Design; fourth, Fashion Design and Technology.