Decatur High School's "Best Kept Secret"

          On Wednesday, April 2nd, a group of 40 engineering technology students arrived at Decatur High School around 6:30 AM, loaded projects and luggage onto a charter bus and departed with Tuscaloosa, AL as their destination. These students, along with over 600 others from around Alabama, competed at the 35th annual Alabama Technology Student Association(TSA) State Competition. Decatur High School's TSA chapter is lead by Career Technology teacher, Paul Allen, and attends this conference every year. They are known state-wide through TSA for taking first place overall nearly every year. Allen refers to the DHS TSA chapter as "Decatur High School's best kept secret" due to their plethora of awards with limited recognition.
          TSA is the only student organization devoted exclusively to students engaged in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). It is only open to students enrolled in or who have completed a technology education course. It's membership includes over 200,000 middle and high school students in over 2,000 schools spanning 49 states.


Decatur High and Oak Park Middle School's TSA students

          This year's group was especially exceptional because it consisted of both middle and high school students. Paul Allen dedicated himself to starting the very first Oak Park Middle School TSA Chapter earlier this year, and gave them the opportunity to compete at this year's state conference. The two schools joined together to represent Decatur City Schools competing over the 2-day period in several different competitions from flight endurance and VEX robotics to photographic technology and graphic design.
          Oak Park Middle School students placed extremely well for their first time at this conference, placing in third overall for the middle school division. The individual awards are as follows:

Christian Castenada
     Problem Solving 8th Place
     Safety Illustration 7th Place
     Structural Engineering 3rd Place
Haley Fitzgerald
     Dragster Design 2nd Place
Alex Hurst
     Safety Illustration 2nd Place
     Structural Engineering 1st Place
Mac Johnson
     Safety Illustration 5th Place
     Problem Solving 8th Place
     Structural Engineering 1st Place
Annabelle May
     State Pin 1st Place
     State T-shirt 1st Place
Cole McCormick
     Dragster Design 3rd Place
     Structural Engineering 3rd Place
John Mobes
     Dragster Design 1st Place
Logan Roberts
     Structural Engineering 2nd Place
Trent Underwood
     Structural Engineering 2nd Place

          Decatur High School continued their tradition of excellence by placing first overall for the high school division. Mr. Paul Allen was also awarded the Michael Bradford TSA Advisor of the Year Award for the High School division. The individual awards are as follows:

Madelyn Hoffmann
Career Preparations - 5th place
Brian Zhang
Computer aided Design 2D Architecture - 3rd place
VEX - 1st place  
Davis Earley
VEX - 2nd place 

Computer Aided Design 3D Engineering - 2nd place
Desktop Publishing - 1st place
Erin McKee
TSA Creed - 1st place
Promotional Graphics - 2nd place
Shivam Patel
Dragster Design - 3rd place
Safety Illustration - 1st place
VEX - 1st place 
Hughston May
State Pin - 1st place
Dragster Design - 1st place
Digital Video Production - 3rd place
Photographic Technology - 2nd place
Promotional Graphics - 4th Place
T-shirt Design - 1st place
Jesus Alverez
State T-Shirt Design - 3rd place
Digital Video Production - 3rd place
George Brown
Digital Video Production - 3rd place
Technology Bowl - 4th place
Hunter Lee
Digital Video Production - 3rd place
Manufacturing Prototype - 4th place
Promotional Graphics - 3rd place
VEX - 3rd place
TJ Romine
Extemporaneous Presentation - 10th place
Daniel Cater
Flight Endurance - 5th place
VEX - 3rd place
Jakob Breuers
Manufacturing Prototype - 4th place
Extemporaneous Presentation - 6th place
Wiley Irish
Safety Illustration - 3rd place

Manufacturing Prototype - 4th place
VEX - 1st place  
Austin Rodgers
Dragster Design - 2nd place
Structural Engineering - 1st place
Manufacturing Prototype - 4th place
Tech Problem Solving - 4th place
Tyler Moore
Manufacturing Prototype - 4th place
State Pin - 4th place
Flight Endurance - 2nd place
Logan Batchelor
Tech Problem Solving - 1st place

Structural Engineering - 3rd place
Brett Drake
Structural Engineering - 3rd place
Dock Hunter
Structural Engineering - 1st place
Tech Problem Solving - 4th place
VEX - 1st place 
Will Hall
Technology Bowl - 4th place
Safety Illustration - 2nd place
State Pin - 3rd place
State T-shirt - 2nd place
Peter Neil
Technology Bowl - 4th place
John David Kennedy
Technology Problem Solving - 8th place
Structural Engineering - 2nd place
Dylan Osborn
Technology Problem Solving - 8th place
VEX - 2nd place
Alex Peterson
Computer aided Design 2D Architecture - 4th place
VEX - 3rd place
Eli Carle
Flight Endurance - 4th place
Photographic Technology - 1st place
Jessica Coffey
Structural Engineering - 2nd place
Briley Uptain
Structural Engineering - 1st place
Ezequiel Gonzalez
VEX - 3rd place
Jay Hoffmann
VEX - 2nd place
Rian Silvestri
VEX - 2nd place

          Decatur City Schools is so proud of the Decatur High School and Oak Park Middle School TSA Chapter and their many accomplishments.