"Dress For Success"

June 23rd; Orlando, Florida. The Paly Team A finished 5th overall at the National TEAMS competition in the 9/10 grade division held by the Technology Student Association (TSA), by racking up 2nd place in the Written and 6th in the Prepared Presentation categories. Teams across the nation competed in this 4 day event including 3 teams from Palo Alto High School and 10 from Palos Verde. Five California teams placed in the overall top ten for 9/10 grades. Team A National members included; Anuva Banwasi, Alex Feng, Jordan Lee, Leland Ling, Francis Peng, Maurice Wang, Anthony Xie, and Kaz Yanagisawa.

The really remarkable story is that Team A found itself short 5 members just 2 months before the National Competition. On April 25 at 11pm, Alex Feng became desperate after learning that not only 4 members but also the current team leader had decided not to attend. "It took me about 20 minutes, to ponder what I wanted to do. Maurice and I ended up emailing everyone we knew, asking them to join Teams" described Alex. Four days later, out of 40 people they managed to get 5 whom they thought would be good teammates. "I wanted team camaraderie, kids that would work best together," proclaimed Alex, the new de facto leader of Team A.

The odds of filling out the team and even placing against other experienced teams nationally seems insurmountable. "We busted our butts," described Alex in the last week before leaving for Florida, working 5-6 hours a day, over several sessions a day. And during finals also. "Oh, don't worry about finals," some parents were told uncomfortably. "We had kids with reasonable enough standing with our grades so it gave us more time," laughed Alex.

Jordan's dad, Gordon graciously donated the red ties, perhaps foretelling the team before their departure, "dress for success." And that they did.

"This friendship among the 8 of us will last through high school no matter what we will end up doing," stated Alex.