May 5, 2023-- Secondary students from across the district recently competed in the New Jersey Technical Student Association (NJTSA) competitions at the College of New Jersey.
NJTSA is the only student organization devoted exclusively to the needs of technology-education students. For Toms River students, the NJDOE-funded Middle Grades Career Awareness and Exploration grant (Bridge to the Future) and high school-level CTE Perkins supports these programs by providing advisors, buses, and admission to local competitions. Teams also fundraise throughout the school year to sustain their program. Students at Intermediate East, for example, sold stuffed turtles to raise funds for their community service turtle habitat project.
And the turtle-themed sale proved well worth it, as a team of Intermediate East students won first place for their community service video submission of their turtle garden at Island Beach State Park that is accessible to both box turtles and terrapins.
This year students were particularly excited to create audio podcasts, solve technology problems, and race dragsters. And yet again, students from Intermediate East came through, winning first prize for designing a device called the Scan EZ to help with making more effective grocery shopping lists.
And it wasn’t just Intermediate East kids who had success at TCNJ. Adam Pacheco Guerrero from Intermediate North won first prize in essays on technology for his work exploring whether mobile phones are helpful or harmful.
Also, High School East’s Dante Kanterezhi-gatto won first place in the Extemporaneous Speech topic after competing with 18 students in the category. Dante also walked away with admission into the Technology Honor Society, and silver and bronze award certificates for the TSA Achievement Program.