Harmony Magnet Academy students were indeed up to the challenge as they came away as the winners of the recently held Tulare County Office of Education-Bareng Student Internship Design Challenge.
Bareng's company along with Southern California Edison sponsored the event. There were seven teams from Redwood, Mission Oak, Lindsay, Orosi and the Porterville Unified School District who competed in the event.
Harmony's team was made up of Lizet Corona, Chelsea Gamboa, Shivaraj Thiagarajian, project manager Avery Chang, Itzel Moreno, assistant project manager Karen Orozco, Joel Panduro and coach Suzanne Shearer.
Harmony took away the first place prize of $1,500. Mission Oak won $1,000 for second and Redwood won $500 for third.
In the competition students presented detailed affordable housing proposals, including site plans, financial analyses and 3D renderings. Projects were aimed to address the issue of educators being priced out of communities they serve.
The competition was designed for students to gain real-world experience in design, teamwork, financial analysis and presentation skills.
The teams had to make final presentations in which they presented their affordable housing proposals for educators.
Harmony's team was helped by Harmony Academy of Engineering advisory board members Logan Couch and Deicy Lemus from CenterLine Group through Dennis Townsend, another AOE advisory board member.
Bareng and his associates also held office hours for all the students who competed to ask questions and gather insights about the comprehensiveness of their presentations. Shearer worked with her students for countless hours in a process that began months ago.
Harmony principal Jeff Brown also credited PUSD for providing the support to allow its students to compete at a high level.