Jemison High School and the STEM Academy sent 13 students to participate in the 2016 National Technology Student Association Conference.

The conference took place June 28 to July 2 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn.

According to Jay LeCroy with the LeCroy Career Technical Center, the students were competing with over 7,000 students from the United States and around the world during the national event.

Since 1978, the TSA has grown to 150,000 high school, middle school and elementary students in 2,000 chapters spanning 47 states.

Jemison High School and the STEM Academy have participated in TSA for the past five years and continue to build on previous success each and every year.

This was the first year that Jemison engineering teacher Brooke Elliott has had middle school students able to advance to the national level.

“My hope is that they will be able to use the experience for even more success in the future,” Elliott said.

Elliott is currently in Texas going through a program that will enable her to teach bio-technical engineering, which will allow for further expansion of the STEM program into enviromental and agricultural methods.

“Chilton County students are very competitive,” Elliott said. “It doesn’t seem to matter what resources that they have at their disposal.

As those resources and the support continue to grow, so should the number of interest and national success.

“The sky is the limit,” Elliott said.