Technology students honored at conference
BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer

Howell High School technology students brought home several awards from the 2005 New Jersey Technology Students of America Conference.

“The list of winners continued all day,” said Sheryl Roses, applied technology teacher and club adviser. “By winning in 11 of the competitions, our students brought both recognition and pride to Howell High School.”

More than 800 technology education students from 28 high schools competed in events such as structural engineering, computer aided drafting, desktop publishing, architectural modeling and Web site design.

The Howell TSA students participated in most of the 35 competitive events and achievement award categories.

Junior Dante Mucaro earned the National Gold Achievement Award for his performance in School and Community Service, Career and Personal Planning, Leadership and Technological Literacy.

Seniors Jesse Borrelli and Richard Kim won New Jersey Silver Achievement Awards along with junior Jeff Moesch, and freshman Brittany Roses.

Howell High School students winning TSA Chapter bronze awards were sophomores Christopher Balassone, Phil Iacovino, Christina Lusch, Kristi McGovern, Sean O’Reilly, Matthew Testa, Tucker Waldron and Nicholas White; junior Christopher Magarelli; and seniors Erik Hendrickson, Paul Wainwright and Andi Zhupa.

A special community service distinction was bestowed upon the Howell TSA chapter as the winner of the Ronald McDonald Fund-raiser Challenge. The group collected and donated 65 pounds of soda can tabs to Ronald McDonald House; 122 pounds were collected statewide and each pound represents one hour of free dialysis treatments for a needy child.

Winning first place in the TSA competitive events were Christina Lusch, grade 10, for Career Comparisons; Carl Meier, grade 11, for Flight Endurance; Dante Mucaro, grade 11, for Transportation Modeling; Justin Morello, grade 10, and Travis Tucker, grade 10, for Electronic Research and Experimentation; Nick Libonati, grade 9, Mark Stoughton, grade 10, and Greg Wheeler, grade 9, for System Control Technology; and Christie Novatin, grade 11, and Diana Silva, grade 10, for Technological Systems.

Kristi McGovern, grade 10, and Kelly Torres, grade 11, won second place in Medical Technology.

Third-place awards went to Lauren Caminiti, grade 10, for Desktop Publishing; Lisa Meehan, grade 10, for the NJ-TSA Pin Design; and Michael Ciacciarelli, grade 11, for Promotional Graphics.

Howell students Isaac Henry, grade 11, Amanda Lawson, grade 12, Christopher Mattera, grade 12, Carl Meier, grade 11, and Emma Passarelli, grade 11, won third place for their CyberSpace Pursuit Web Page Design.

The 23 Howell High School student winners at the state conference are now eligible to compete at the National TSA Conference in Chicago, to be held June 28 through July 2.

In addition to TSA Conference competition victories, Dante Mucaro, grade 11, was elected the New Jersey TSA vice president for next year, and Michael Krol, grade 10, was elected treasurer.

Senior Amanda Lawson was awarded TSA’s sole scholarship award of $500. TSA is the only student organization devoted exclusively to the needs of technology education students.

Headquartered in the School of Engineering, Department of Technological Studies, at The College of New Jersey, Ewing, the New Jersey TSA is the fastest growing vocational student organization in the state.

New Jersey currently has 33 high school chapters with more than 3,000 student members. TSA’s goal is to promote technological literacy and leadership through student participation in challenging technological competitions that require problem-solving, decision-making, and critical thinking skills as they relate to communications, design, power, energy, transportation, engineering, manufacturing and construction.