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Lakota East seniors place at national HOSA and TSA competitions; TSA team wins animatronics
Summary
The board recognized six Lakota East seniors who competed at national HOSA and TSA competitions; the Lakota/Butler Tech TSA team won first place in animatronics with an interactive library storytelling station.
On July 21 the Lakota Board of Education recognized six seniors from Lakota East High School who competed at national competitions in HOSA (Future Health Professionals) and the Technology Student Association (TSA). The district said the TSA team earned first place in animatronics at the national event.
The students introduced themselves and described their projects and how the extracurricular programs shaped their post‑secondary plans. “I’ve been a part of HOSA for 3 years and I’m majoring in exercise science,” Kennedy Peak told the board. Evie Vincent said she will attend the University of Kentucky on a pre‑physical‑therapy track, and Addie Daley said she will study speech pathology and audiology at Miami University.
The TSA team—represented at the meeting by Ella Galliers and Addison Stallsmith (Lauren Matlock, a teammate, was not present)—described a senior capstone animatronics project built to encourage young readers. The team said they built an interactive storytelling station based on If You Give a Mouse a Cookie that dispenses tokens to children who read, triggers motion and sound with buttons, and displays captions on a screen. The students explained the tech stack: a programmable logic controller (PLC) linked to Arduinos for sound and servos, and a Raspberry Pi for media.
Students said both HOSA and TSA helped them gain presentation skills, teamwork and technical experience. “HOSA has really been good, to help us with collaboration and our networking skills,” one student said. The board and audience members asked about where the animatronic is being housed (students answered it is kept at the school), whether they had tested it with younger learners (they had a showcase with interested children), and how long preparation took (HOSA teams typically begin in the fall and compete at state in January).
Board members praised the students’ presentations and thanked Butler Tech staff who supported the projects. No formal board action was associated with the presentation; it was part of the meeting’s student‑spotlight agenda item.
