Seven outstanding female high school juniors from Redmond gathered with family and friends at a reception at the Lake Washington School District Administration Building in Redmond on March 6 to accept accolades from the Kirkland-Redmond Branch of AAUW. Altogether, district schools chose 20 young women as their outstanding female students to be honored for their excellence in science, technology or math.

The STEM honorees who live in or attend school in Redmond included from Tesla STEM High School: Neha Hulkund, science, Neha Nagvekar, technology, and Vaishnavi Phadnis, math; from Redmond High School: Anna Wang, science, Rishma Murugan, technology, and Virginia Qian, math; from International Community School: Aliya Shabbir, math; and from Lake Washington High School: Kate East, technology.

The young women received a certificate of recognition and a gift to recognize their achievement. Alexandra Lucas, a writer, designer, musician and DigiPen graduate spoke to the honorees about her passion for creating games that explore the vast human experience. With education in French, English and creative writing, she showed that it is possible to include other interests and experience with a technical career in the game industry. She encouraged the young women to continue taking advantage of STEM learning opportunities and yet to incorporate their other interests.

AAUW nationally supports equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy and research. Locally, the Kirkland-Redmond Branch organizes the High School STEM Scholars Program; supports Tech Trek, a one-week summer immersion STEM camp for eigth-grade girls; provides a Cascadia Community College scholarship for a woman returning to school after an absence; and organizes and works at the annual spring Expanding Your Horizons Career Conference for middle school girls at Bellevue College. For more information, visit AAUW-Kirkland-Redmond Branch on Facebook.