Harriton Technology Student Association (TSA) has officially left the building! From Wednesday, April 17 to Saturday, April 20, the students of the Technology Student Association will be socializing and competing at the state conference for TSA in Champion, PA.
Though they are sure to be successful in medals, the club already has a plethora of winners, headed not for the podium, but for the campaign trail. Seven students are running for state and national offices at this year’s conferences: Max Hunt, Ben Hewitt, Sam Wheeler, Won Chung, Ben Levit, Sabrina Sayoc, and Sitara Soundararajan. Four of these students already hold positions on the nine-member PA-TSA student officer team. Let’s take a look at two of these individuals.
Junior, Max Hunt, is currently Harriton TSA’s Vice President and State Sergeant-at-Arms, has been a TSA member since sixth grade, and is running for State Vice-President. In his current position as State Sergeant-at-Arms, aside from his normal duties, Max is supporting the Event Archive program, where winning events would be videotaped and documented to help future students in the competition. “There’s currently just a list of rules for each event, so it can be hard to determine what will really make your team win if you’re new,” he explains. As State VP, Max wants to create more promotional materials reaching out to possible new student members of TSA, instead of advisors. These students would be able to start their own chapters and increase membership, which is very important for TSA.
Ben Hewitt is a sophomore and is currently State Secretary. He has been a member of TSA since seventh grade and is running for National Secretary at the national convention at the end of July. Ben plans to extend his state project to a national level. He has reached out to politicians across PA to invite them to the conferences, hoping to raise awareness of TSA and provide a clear argument against budget cuts for education. Representatives for Governor Tom Corbett and Senator Pat Toomey will be attending States; however, most of the other politicians Ben contacted were unable to come because they needed to be in Washington. “Hopefully if I do the same idea in D.C., more of them will be able to come. I think the ultimate goal would be to get President Obama to visit.”
Sam Wheeler, sophomore, is running for State Treasurer, and he wants to bring local business owners to States to inform the students what it’s like to run a business in the real world.
Won Chung, junior, is running for State Reporter. He wants to implement the use of social media to connect PA-TSA members so they can give one another help on events,.
Ben Levit, junior, is running for State Sergeant-at-Arms, and he wants to help new chapters of TSA with understanding the rules at conference and give advice to new advisors about how to get organized.
Sabrina Sayoc, sophomore, the current State Vice President, is running for a national position, but the Banner was unable to reach her for comment before she left for States.Sitara Soundararajan, junior, current State Reporter, and president of Harriton TSA, is running for State President. She also could not be reached.
Speeches will be made on Thursday and campaigning ends on Friday evening, where two delegates from each of the PA chapters plus the state officers vote on the next state officer team. Whatever the results, Harriton should be proud of these dedicated, innovative students.
