Deep within the quiet hills of Redmond (or rather, forests) lies a school that, to put it mildly, is doing anything but quiet business.
Lake Washington School District’s STEM High School, just having completed its first year as a school, already has an impressive number of plaques, awards and wide breadth of recognition under its belt. The school has and continues to receive a great amount of attention, from elementary school tours to interviews and visiting educators.
Earlier this month, STEM was fortunate enough to have Dr. Mary Alice Heuschel, Gov. Jay Inslee’s chief of staff, pay a visit to the school and interact with the students as they presented and explained their various projects (ranging from the Imagine Tomorrow competition — in which STEM received six awards and an impressive amount in cash prizes — adept computer applications created by the students, a world-competition qualifying VEX Robotics team and a nationally ranked first-place National History Day team).
A few days later, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene paid a visit to the school, as well, and formally cut the ribbon for STEM High School. She mingled with the students and listened to them talk about their work.
What was perhaps the most fascinating thing about seeing this community-scholar interaction was that it truly solidified the idea that STEM is built on the principle of an open and involved community that strives to not merely educate students in said fields, but to educate the students to make an impact.
The two visits mentioned above, the extraordinary achievements of STEM’s students as well as the added cumulative interest of the community in general really sheds a positive light on what the future holds for STEM education and the next generation of scientists, technology oriented careers, engineers and mathematicians.
STEM student Jennifer Yeh notes, “After the first year at the STEM school, I discovered an affinity for the environment through both an APES (advanced placement environmental science) class in addition to the competition Imagine Tomorrow. As DelBene visited our school, I have realized that the STEM students are so fortunate to have so many opportunities and mentors that are encouraging our passions.”
Another student, Christopher Yu, states, “STEM’s first year has been awesome, full of amazing experiences. We all love STEM, and are very lucky we got to share it with Congresswoman DelBene!”
There is no denying that in our current age, these fields are going to be the cutting edge for new exploration and discoveries, as well as the solution to a number of our world’s problems.
Next year, STEM will continue to grow with freshmen, sophomores and juniors on campus. By the 2014-2015 school year, STEM will have a full freshman through senior student body, similar to other high schools in the district.
The STEM curriculum is geared toward preparing students for their futures in a sophisticated and challenging manner, with the intent of allowing exceptional academic growth and exploration in the fields of science, technology, mathematics and engineering. The school inherently pushes you to go further than simply learning, but exploring your horizons.
Christina Dias served as STEM High School’s Associated Student Body president this year.
