The Georgia Technology Student Association’s State Leadership Conference brought together over 2,000 middle and high school students for a bit of fierce and friendly competition. Three local schools, Bennett’s Mill Middle, Rising Starr Middle, and Starr’s Mill High, were among the big winners in a variety of disciplines.
Bennett’s Mill Middle showed again they are Bronco Strong, finishing as state finalists in nearly every category they attempted.
Ibrahim Kamara and Anderson Williams won 1st place for Electrical Applications; Donovan Mosley-Lloyd and Michael Panait placed 2nd in Problem Solving; Gary Smith and Mosheen Virani placed 3rd in Microcontroller; Michael Panait and Aiden Thomas placed 3rd in Technical Design; the trio of Benita Abrifor, Malikay Lalani, and Zahra Tejani placed 4th in Stem Animation; Levi Sims placed 5th in CAD Foundations; the trio of Benita Abrifor, Malikay Lalani, and Zahra Tejani placed 5th in Children’s Stories; Michael Panait, Aiden Thomas, Matthew Furtch, Peter Woodall, and Victor Woodall placed 5th in Video Game Design; Matthew Furtch placed 6th in Prepared Speech; and the trio of Aiden Thomas, Levi Sims, and Zahra Tejani placed 9th in Leadership Strategies.
As a team, the Broncos placed 8th in Outstanding Chapter.
Every Rising Starr student that attended was a top 10 finisher.
In individual competitions, Nev Evans placed 9th in Children’s Stories, Cooper Hubbard placed 10th in Flight, and Kieran Bell placed 2nd in Microcontroller. In pairs, Jagad Krishnan and John Bostick placed 2nd in Coding; Kieran Bell and Victoria Magaña-Luévano placed 5th in Forensic Technology; Jagad Krishnan and Kieran Bell placed 2nd in Mechanical Engineering; Victoria Magaña-Luévano and Cooper Hubbard placed 9th in Problem Solving; and Jagad Krishnan and John Bostick placed 2nd in Webpage Design. The trio of Liam Bell, Nev Evans, and Amelia Smith placed 5th for Community Service Video, and the trio of Cooper Hubbard, Jason Li, and Victoria Magaña-Luévano placed 3rd for Construction Challenge.
The competition was extra special for one RSMS student, as Liam Bell was elected as the Georgia Technology Student Association 2nd Vice President. Liam will serve as a state officer from now until next year’s State Leadership Conference, representing all middle school TSA chapters in the state of Georgia.
Starr’s Mill sent a team to compete in the high school division, placing in three areas.
Katie Rausch placed 9th in Data Science and Analytics; the duo of Richard Wang and Emily Stanek placed 5th in Structural Design and Engineering; and the team of Lexy Grove, Richard Wang, Katherine Shriner, Emily Stanek, and Katie Rausch placed 6th in Engineering Design.
— Provided by the Fayette County School System.
