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NJTSA ChapterCon 2026 feature photo 1

High School South Business Academy instructor Gary Azzolini judges a portion of the communications technology category at the district's NJTSA ChapterCon held Feb. 27.

March 2, 2026- The third annual NJTSA ChapterCon — sponsored by the Lakehurst Joint Base, NAWCAD for 2026 — was held Feb. 27 and brought out the district's best and brightest.

In preparation for their competition at the state level, High School East Chapter President Noah Eichert coordinated a comprehensive plan and schedule for an afternoon of career and technical education, a series of NJ Technical Student Association challenges.

Students brought their work, assigned to different NJTSA categories, for feedback.

"This was a great opportunity to assist students along their NJTSA journey, and for them to collaborate with one another for an ALL IN experience here at TRRS," said Technology Supervisor Tiffany Lucey.

Families came to support their learners, and the event featured an all-star cast of judges from both the NAWCAD, Remington and Vernick Engineers, and Toms River Regional Schools. The categories, winners, and judges included:

  • Architecture and Construction Technology was judged by Stephanie Baumgartner of Remington and Vernick Engineers, and the first-place award was presented to Jorja Tupper, who presented a scrupulous and comprehensive home design including systems, sketches and materials.
  • Communications Technology was judged by High School South Business Academy Instructor Gary Azzolini, and the award was presented to Angelina Sanford and Adam Martino for their website design with a complete and thorough marketing plan for execution.
  • Computer Science and Information Technology was judged by NAWCAD’s Lauren Youngblood, and first place was presented to Chance Cook, Chris Duffield, Tim Purnell, and Ehtishaam Shah for their virtual reality game design using the Unity physics engine and C++.
  • Manufacturing and Transportation Technology was judged by NAWACAD’s own Dominic Fargo. The winning design was a drone designed by Mithil Patel and Matt Leatherman (below). Their work in progress was exceptional for their optimization of the design to successfully traverse a series of obstacles.
NJTSA ChapterCon 2026 feature photo 2
  • Stem (general) was judged by Kristina Jones from NAWCAD, and the winner was Joe Laing. This year's challenge aimed to explore the opportunity to revitalize retro video games into something brand new, and Joe's racing video game design proved to be both comprehensive and visionary.
  • STEM and the Arts were judged by High School East Media Specialist Carly Scallon, who awarded a team of fashion designers — Logan Lonergan, Duke Snowden, and Victoria Cutillo — for their boundary-pushing concept in keeping with the villains theme by 3D printing the bones of their enemies into their costume design concept.

The big winners, however, for overall first place and the Judges' Award in Technology and Research was doled out by NAWCAD's Gavin Craft and provided to competitors Nolan Bruckner, DJ Sassone, Chiaki Lux, Izzy Cutillo, Kayla Fung, and Christina Dakrat (below). This team used the structure they learned in AP Seminar/AP Capstone to come up with a novel concept utilizing nanotechnology to cross the blood brain barrier and help reduce cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer's. Their comprehensive understanding of a complex topic, the judges noted, allowed them to speak expertly and support their design plan.

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Congratulations to all of the winners and competitors at this year's NJTSA ChapterCon! Additional photo from the event are in a slideshow below.