![Adding a tray of canned corn to the pile, junior Michael Collop assists in transporting donations for the Holiday Food Drive. The event, hosted schoolwide from Dec. 10-17, raised over 5,000 food items to deliver to the Parkway Food Pantry, helping several families in need. [The drive] is a great thing for us to do because you're giving to those who are less fortunate, and it helps provide for people who can't provide for themselves. [The] competition is always fun, too. It was fun to be in [social studies teacher Jess] Chazen’s class, because he always gets worked up over [the competition]. He made it exciting, and was always convincing us to turn in cans for the drive,” Collop said.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/feature-photo-unsung-2.png)
![NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates.
“One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.”
As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game.
“Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_9283-1-1200x800.jpg)
STEM driving Jain to become Region 11 TSA president (with video)
Shreya Ravi
Coppell High School junior Naisha Jain has put her passions and knowledge of STEM into the Technology Student Association for the past two years. On Feb. 11, Jain was announced Region 11 TSA president, the first in Coppell.
Shreya Ravi
March 23, 2023
Countless hours pass by as Coppell High School junior and Technology Student Association secretary Naisha Jain perfects her autoclave device, ready to compete at the TSA regional conference. She competes in six competitions at regionals, pouring endless effort into research involving the recent Texas snowstorms and ways NASA can better preserve food in space.
Finally, she gives her speech, presenting the question: “Why should I be Region 11 TSA president?”
On Feb. 11, excitement filled the room of the CHS cafeteria as Jain was announced Region 11 TSA president, a first in Coppell.
“I was shocked, and I still am,”Jain said. “It’s a big thing for me because I’ve been involved in TSA for three years and have always tried to grow the members, so being TSA region president gives me the opportunity to grow the program even more.”
Months prior, Jain put in work by spending time in and out of school and TSA meetings while also working with CHS engineering teacher, TSA advisor and Region 11 board president Michael Yakubovsky to get the chapter integrated into the regional officer program.
“This was our first year ever having regional officers, so I worked very closely with Mr. Yakubovsky to create this program,” Jain said. “It was pretty basic and involved creating a google form and giving speeches at the [region competition’s] opening ceremony.”
While working with her team for competition, Jain’s key trait is her hard-working nature and efficiency. When working on the competition for geospatial data, her job was to focus on creating a portfolio for competition.
“She helped a lot with the organization and data collection side of the [geospatial] project,” junior TSA member Ustav Jain said. “It’s great to work with her because she’s always looking for new ideas, looking at every single aspect of the project and she’s very interactive and fun to talk to.”
Jain’s passion for STEM is evident through her large participation in TSA activities and in her engineering class. Jain mentions that her motives were actually influenced by young inventor Gintanjaly Rao. Her device combating the Flint water crisis, a public health crisis in Flint, Mich., caught Jain’s attention and prompted her to focus on improving the effects of water contamination in the future.
“She was the winner of a discovery education competition in 2017 and she’s so young,” Jain said. “Her device helped many facing the water crisis, which brought the issue of water contamination and quality to my attention and inspired me to strive to make a difference.”
In her engineering class, Jain displays the same amount of diligence and efficiency with daily assignments and projects. As a student, she constantly strives to help others and do her best work and never fails to embody the ideals TSA supports.
“Over the last couple of years, I’ve really gotten to see Naisha grow as a leader in her class and in TSA because she’s very approachable and reliable,” Yakubovsky said.
Jain has been in TSA since her freshman year. Although she’s constantly involving herself and organizing club activities as secretary of the CHS club chapter, her favorite part about TSA is the long lasting friendships she has made.
“I love TSA because I get to meet so many new people and I’ve made a large number of best friends here,” Jain said. “It can be really stressful right before competitions, but knowing that you’re with your friends and you’re bonding [through competitions] is a really nice experience.”
Jain continues to advance her passions and knowledge in STEM as she recently got accepted to the Texas High School Aerospace Scholars, hosted and mentored by NASA scientists. The program will assist students in finding what they enjoy in space and earth exploration while remotely assisting with data analysis and collection.
Jain’s evident contributions to TSA have been very beneficial to the program and what it has become today. She hopes that from her journey, new TSA members will be motivated to never back away from trying new things.
“Just go for it,” Jain said. “You never know what you could get.”
This story was originally published on Coppell Student Media on March 7, 2023.
