SUNY Oswego Technology Student Association (OTSA) members added more awards to their trophy case at the recent ITEEA (International Technology and Engineering Educators Association) Conference in Minneapolis.

Awards included:

  • First place in manufacturing
  • Fourth place in robots 
  • Fifth in communications
  • Fifth in teaching a lesson

In addition, OTSA President Bryleigh Beauchat won the award for Outstanding TECCA (Technology and Engineering Education Collegiate Association) Student Award. TECCA is a part of ITEEA.

The key to the overall success was preparation, as Beauchat estimated that students put more than 250 hours of work into their entries for the April conference. “Collectively, as a club, people prepare for everything collaboratively, in and out of class,” the technology education major noted.

The prompt for their first-place manufacturing assignment was to improve a current board game, so the team chose Settlers of Catan and built a deluxe set that featured 273 pieces total, including 17 individual pieces they designed and manufactured.

And while team members had to deal with time conflicts, they found ways to get the work done, said Eliza Sarigiannis, another key participant and technology education major.

“We were staying up until 1 a.m. working in labs,” Sarigiannis said. “Sometimes our professors would stay up with us to help us figure out what we could do better.”

Dedicated students and faculty

The level of faculty dedication impressed the students and helped drive the success.

“As students in the tech ed major, that’s something we can look to use as role models when we become teachers,” Sarigiannis noted. “As students, it shows us how important it is to our professors. That’s one of the great things about Oswego.”

Technology classes are integrated into each other so students gain broad knowledge, so they are essentially cross-trained in many elements of the competitions.

“We’re all taking these classes together,” Sarigiannis said. If somebody needs help with something in any of these subjects, we can absolutely help each other.”

Another participant and technology education major, Jack Hickey, said that attention to detail and teamwork impressed judges and participants alike, contributing to the manufacturing win.

“We got a lot of positive feedback from judges and others for the color booklet, lining up the colors well, the materials we chose and the design,” Hickey said. “It was a collaboration of everyone.”

The Outstanding TEECA Student Award is “for a student who has shown outstanding work for, and service to, your chapter, program and campus community,” Beauchat noted, adding that the honor is really a credit to the whole team of students and their level of commitment. 

“My peers submitted their reasons for why I should receive this award, then their proposal goes to the TEECA board to decide who should receive this award nationwide,” Beauchat said. “I am very thankful for the opportunity to be president of OTSA and even more grateful for the community and friendship in return from the members of the club. It would not be possible without their help. and I am thankful for their nominations to receive this award.”

Additional student participants included Josh Arnold, Joe Costello, Aiden Cuppet, Connor Dickman, Jack Donohue, Samuel Gosden, Ashley Golden, Daniel Hall, Zackary Hilbert, Taylor Mackowiak, Adam Parante, Margaret Romano, Samuel Solomon, Tristan Spinelle, Benjamin Sullivan and Tiffany Troung. 

The honors OTSA received with this national conference complement other recent successes in the November 2022 TEECA Regional Conference and the 2022 ITEEA National Conference.