I was sixteen when I began my sophomore year at Highland School of Technology. I had been picked through a lottery to get into this special high school, and because of this, I was given many opportunities. I joined the Technology Student Association (TSA) that was available at my school because my career pathway ended up being Manufacturing Engineering. Although my true intentions didn’t fall along the lines of Engineering, I still learned a lot and had fun while doing it. I’m glad my teachers at the school encouraged me to join TSA. The club challenged me to think creatively and improved my team-building skills. Mr. Wingfield, our academy coordinator, was super glad I joined the club. Each year we had Regional, State, and National TSA events to go and compete in as a school. There were many different fields of events to choose from and compete in against other high schools. He hoped I would take this opportunity seriously and pick a field that I felt I could be successful in. After our first TSA meeting, I went home and thought long and hard about the event I could be triumphant in. Soon enough, I had my first meeting in the Engineering lab at the school. Mr. Winfield and the other staff members asked us to pick our top two competition choices. After an internal debate, I had decided that I’d feel most comfortable with joining the Animatronics team. In Animatronics, the participants were required to demonstrate knowledge of mechanical and control systems by designing, fabricating, and controlling an animatronics device that would communicate, entertain, inform, and demonstrate and/or illustrate a topic, idea, subject or concept. I was super happy I made the choice to enter this competition; even my engineering teachers agreed that this event would suit me. I knew it was going to be a demanding task but we, as a school, were known for receiving first place in Animatronics for the past five years. The team met in the engineering