This past week, 7 students represented Tunstall at the Virginia Senior Beta Convention in Hampton, VA, for the first time since 2012. Two students brought home qualifying awards, sending them to Nationals in June. Sponsors Tara Mills and Jennifer Watson, along with Olivia McCraw, accompanied the students.

While at the convention, themed “Beta on My Mind,” the students competed in various academic and non-academic competitions. Senior Lauren Jackson and junior Grant Dixon competed in Division II of the language arts category. Junior Pragya Chaturvedi competed in Division II of the math category and junior Jessica Durand competed in Division II of the science category. Additionally, junior Eli Ashworth competed in Division II of the social studies category.

Jackson, Chaturvedi, Durand, and junior Mary-Catherine Jones also competed in the written portion of the quiz bowl competition, but unfortunately, did not qualify for the oral portion.

In the more artistic and expressive categories, Ashworth and Dixon competed in the advertisement design competition, Chaturvedi competed in On-Site Acrylic painting, and Jones and senior Blake Mitchell competed in Special Talent.

All members of the group represented the Trojans well, and three students brought home awards that qualified them to move on to the National level.

After competing in the science competition, Durand brought home 1st place in her division.

“I was glad to be representing my school at the convention,” said Durand.

Jones and Mitchell performed a duet for the Special Talent competition from the Broadway musical, Dear Evan Hansen, that spread awareness of suicide prevention. The pair brought home 3rd place and will also be continuing on to Nationals.

“A girl who also lost a friend named Hannah to suicide reached out to me after the performance on Twitter, and honestly, I’m just so proud of [our performance],” said Jones.

Sponsors Tara Mills and Jennifer Watson both felt that the students represented the Trojans splendidly and were delighted to bring home awards in their first year as sponsors.

“…all the credit goes to the students who won. It’s hard going into a competition without really having an idea of what it entails, but I love the brazen fearlessness that the students had to tackle their competitions,” said Mills.

Mills felt that she was able to build relationships with students that she might not have built without this convention.

“Anytime you can build relationships between students and with students is amazing,” said Mills.

The co-sponsors hope to take a larger group next year so that they can have a better representation at the convention and allow students the opportunity to showcase their talents at the State, and possibly, National level.

The club will travel to Savannah, Georgia, June 17-20 for the National Senior Beta Convention, where they will compete once again for the award.