STLP (Student Technology Leadership Program)

Another program I joined in high school was the Student Technology Leadership Program (STLP). This program and SkillsUSA were probably the two most stressful when we made it to state level competitions in both programs because both competitions were always a few weeks apart in April and May. But I enjoyed participating in the program because it further developed my interest in web development and technology itself. I joined this program around December 2008, middle of my 9th grade year, with a few friends just to see what the program consisted of and if it would be beneficial to getting into college and enhancing my high school career, I made an awesome choice to stay in the program after attending a regional showcase at Northern Kentucky University which was a competitive showcase of projects created by kids in elementary, middle, and high school. I was absolutely amazed by what some of the kids came up with, one even designed a virtual reality project and the kid was in middle school! Then in May 2009 I traveled to the state showcase in Lexington, Kentucky to see what it was like there too, it was an overnight trip, we stayed in the Hilton hotel and it was an awesome experience to say the least. I stayed in the program all through high school.

My 10th grade year ultimately tested me. My friend Christina and I were the only two girls in the STLP program and we had a project of our own to build, our project was to teach the basics of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3... kinda outdated by now. We went and competed in the regional showcase at Northern in November 2009 and was qualified along with the boys' project to advance to the state showcase in Lexington in May 2010. We didn't make it to a national showcase but it was worth a shot.

My 11th grade year is when it got a little stressful. Because I had also joined in SkillsUSA that year. Now it was me, Christina,  and my other two friends Rebecca and Jordan in a group and this project posed a challenge. We were going to show how 3D modeling could help teach a class, we put the presentation together for regional and we passed and advanced on to the state showcase which was exciting but it was also more work. After making it to state for skills as well it put a lot more work on me. I was staying aftrr school as late as 5 or 6 sometimes doing skills and STLP work. We got it togryher though.  Didn't make it to state but definitely caught people's attention.

12th grade unfortunately we didn't make it but it was still fun and we still got to go to Lexington to be apart of it. I know yjis program helped influence me to be where I am today and I'm glad I took advantage of the opportunity :)