The New Mexico Technology Student Association, managed through New Mexico State University’s College of Engineering, is the STEM career technical student organization for the state of New Mexico, and NMSU hosted the inaugural NM TSA state leadership conference April 12-13 in Las Cruces.
More than 200 students from middle and high school chapters across the state showcased their projects and practiced leadership through more than 55 different science, technology, engineering and mathematics competitions. Volcano Vista High School was named this year’s state champion.
Schools in attendance included Carlsbad High School, Chaparral High School, Cliff High School, Cloudcroft Middle and High School, Goddard High School, Los Lunas High School, Pecos Cyber Academy, Santa Teresa High School, School of Dreams Academy and The ASK Academy.
“Twenty-first century skills, including leadership, communication and teamwork, are important for our future workforce. As a career technical student organization, TSA provides students with opportunities for career-based learning and practicing these necessary soft skills,” said Clara Raley, NMSU STEM program manager and TSA state adviser. “NM TSA is constantly working to align industry needs of New Mexico to the programming we provide in TSA. We are quickly expanding, with over 50% growth in this year’s active membership, and much more estimated for next year.”
As a national career and technical student organization, TSA provides affiliated schools with more than 75 intra-curricular, career-based projects for middle- and high-school students and a program that encourages career, civic and leadership experiences. Student members complete standards-based experiential projects to build the necessary skills and knowledge to compete at the annual state leadership conference with the chance to advance to the national conference in Orlando, Florida, in June. Competitions span many different career clusters including architecture, arts and audio and visual technology, marketing, education, health sciences, engineering and information technology.
Interested schools are encouraged to affiliate with NM TSA to gain access to this invaluable program. To affiliate with any career and technical student organization, schools pay national and state dues each year. Visit https://nmtsa.com for more information.
