As competition nerves rise, students are sitting at the edge of their seats, awaiting results. As their names flash on the screen,  CHS9’s Sahana Gaddam and Lasya Pillamari are in utter shock, seeing illuminated letters reading “State Champions.”

Being the first year of Technological Student Association returning to the Coppell High School Ninth Grade Center was a new experience for both. Having a wider oppurtunity with new classes has changed quite a bit.

“This is the first year that TSA was open for ninth graders after a long time and it’s been a great experience to be a part of,” Gaddam said.

Their event was over social media marketing where they specifically had to create a campaign with eight Instagram posts from TSA’s account to market it in less than 24 hours. 

“We had to use the 24 hours at the event to go around and take pictures of students at the event and we planned which photos to take and how it would benefit TSA,” Pillamari said.

This is the first year Gaddam and Pillamari tried out TSA after hearing about it from peers. Being able to navigate was no easy task.

“It was our first year competing and we didn’t have much experience so we struggled to find ideas for things on the spot,” Gaddam said.

TSA has experienced changes over the past few years, with the emergence of newer events not as software oriented and requiring critical thinking from participants.

‘This was an entirely new event this year so there wasn’t much research which required us to figure out how to navigate that on our own,” Pillamari said.

Gaddam and Pillamari had limited events to choose from due to being freshmen in the program, which made choosing even more difficult. Figuring out their topic and not expecting much, but placing first feels unreal to both.

“Winning was so crazy, me and Sahana told ourselves to not get our hopes up, since it’s just our first year and we don’t know a lot yet. Getting called up as first place made us really happy because we didn’t think we’d win,” Pillamari said.

Both want to expand their knowledge on TSA and the events as a whole. Aside from winning, they both experienced state, having fun with other students and meeting new people was their best part of it all.

“Both of them have a true heart to compete and to be able to get to that level of winning requires a lot of hard work and dedication. It was a very proud moment as a teacher and for them as students,” CHS9 TSA adviser Chad Price said.

Pillamari and Gaddam want to strive to give their best at TSA and experience it alongside each other. Their hard work shined through and they hope they encourage others to join as well. 

Follow Niharika (@niharikaht) and @CHSCampusNews on X.