This April, a small team of twelve students represented Maggie Walker at one of the largest technology competitions in the nation, known as the Technology Student Association Technosphere State Competition. This year, Maggie Walker’s Technology Student Association, or better known as TSA, achieved goals from having their very own members reach regional and state office to winning multiple awards at the State level. Led by an amazing leadership team and consisting of dedicated members, the team was able to succeed extensively in many areas in the state competition and received an unprecedented amount of recognition and accolades. 

The Technology Student Association is an organization that provides early engagement opportunities for middle and high school students in STEAM-related fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) ranging from Animatronics to Biotechnology Design, and much more. Although the organization and its name mainly highlights technology-based themes and challenges, it also integrates multiple challenges related to other fields such as Fashion Design, Music Production, and Children’s Stories to spark the creative mind. Through the organization, students have the opportunity to be recognized for their talents by participating in local, state, and national competitions, as well as to gain soft skills essential for the workplace by holding leadership positions at all of these levels. 

“I personally have developed soft skills like networking, leading a team, being an effective member of an organization, and effecting change on a broader scale than I ever thought possible before joining this association,” said senior Pooja Muthuraj, a member of the leadership team on Maggie Walker’s TSA team and the Vice President of Regional TSA. 

Although the Maggie Walker TSA chapter has been a relatively small team for much of its existence, the team itself has collected multiple awards throughout the years. Muthuraj states that through these challenges, she was able gain confidence and “critical exposure to a number of potential career fields that I would never have otherwise been able to experience or learn about.”

As the Regional TSA Competition was coming around the corner in March, the Maggie Walker TSA team was hard at work planning, preparing, and finalizing to present their projects. As soon as the awards ceremony ended, the train to Technosphere took them on a challenging but short ride where each member was engaged in multiple challenges all with the same goal: winning States. 

TSA State Parliamentarian Kushal Gowda (‘25) explains, “Technosphere is an experience where thousands of people come together to compete and display their hard work during a three-day state competition.” TSA states took eleven students to Hampton, VA, where they spent three days competing at the Hampton Convention Center. Gowda further expressed, “It is a great place to spend some time with friends, be exposed to new things, and to just have fun!” This year the team qualified for Nationals in five challenges, ranging from CAD Engineering to Forensic Science to Fashion Design/Technology, with six additional challenges finalizing top ten in Virginia.

In addition to these awards, Maggie Walker students have also had an incredible hand in regional and state leadership under this organization. Maggie Walker TSA members held three officer positions at the regional and state level this year: Regional Secretary Isabella Lee (‘22),Vice President Pooja Muthuraj (‘22), and State Parliamentarian Kushal Gowda (‘25). Maggie Walker also has two more students elected for the following year: Kushal Gowda, State Treasurer, and Sreemayi Gangireddy (‘25), Regional and State Reporter. To top it all off, Maggie Walker’s TSA was chosen top ten in the state out of 40 other schools’ TSA teams due to its incredible students!

The experience itself was exhilarating for all the members present, as they were able to collaborate and discuss engineering-related topics with some of the brightest minds in Virginia, and gain exposure to multiple fields across STEAM. The team had lots of fun, but also was able to perform at the competition like never before. Freshman Rahmat Okegbenro, a new member of the TSA team explains that "she had never experienced anything like TSA before, and never knew that it was going to be such a huge deal when [she] signed up for the club in the fall."

TSA has definitely grown at Maggie Walker, with more and more students joining each year. At the state level, the club shone among two thousand other students and saw no halts in their success. Maggie Walker’s TSA Reporter, Regional Reporter, and State Reporter Sreemayi Gangireddy hopes to “publicize and fundraise for the club more, allow students from all areas of interest to experience TSA.” 

Recruiting new members, exposing them to the facets of technology, and overall building a close, competitive community will be the forefront of the team’s next season in the upcoming school year. “All in all, this has been an incredible journey, and to anyone considering joining the club—do it!” said Muthuraj. “We are becoming a real force to reckon with, and we are only getting stronger each year.” TSA may be a small chapter now but it might just be the next big thing here at Maggie Walker, and the school cannot wait to see what they accomplish next.