DC-Area High School Students Selected as First STEM Career Exploration Fellows
STEM Fellows meet with researchers – including Nobel Prize winner – at inaugural event
The first class of high school students to participate in a new fellowship program to explore careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) was announced today by the Sandra Lee Heyman Foundation. The 27 Fellows in the new program come from Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, MD, and the Washington Leadership Academy, a public charter school in the District of Columbia.
The 18-month long Fellowship is aimed at promising high school students. Fellows range from those who already aim to pursue a STEM career but have not yet identified a specialty to other students who are only beginning to consider the possibility of a STEM-based higher education and career. Fellows will meet with STEM leaders, visit prominent institutions in the Washington, D.C., area, and access peers and mentors to support career exploration in STEM fields.
On January 27th, the new Fellows took part in their first event: a visit to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD, where they toured laboratories and met with Dr. William Phillips, one of NIST’s Nobel Prize winners in physics, as well as with a diverse group of accomplished scientists and engineers. The tours and small group discussions allowed the Fellows to explore the work being conducted by their hosts and varied STEM career paths.
Class 1 of SLH Foundation Fellows stand in front of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where they spent that day learning from STEM leaders.
As Fellows, for three semesters the students will take part in events that will offer close-up views of careers in which STEM education is a solid foundation – from laboratory researchers and those in “traditional” science and engineering careers to others who use their STEM backgrounds in sports management, arts and entertainment, business and finance, and journalism.
Fellows also will be connected with successful STEM professionals, including previous winners of the Sandra Lee Heyman Higher Mathematics Award – a scholarship given annually since 1999 to one outstanding Richard Montgomery High School mathematics student.
The non-profit Foundation conducts its work in memory and honor of Sandra Lee Heyman, who taught mathematics at the community college, high school, middle school, and elementary school levels in Montgomery County, MD (Montgomery College, Richard Montgomery High School, Gaithersburg High School), Fairfax County, VA (Lake Braddock Secondary School), and New Providence, NJ (Allen Roberts Elementary School). She passed away in 1998 due to an autoimmune blood disease. The Foundation was formed by Sandra’s family to honor her memory and extend her legacy. The Foundation will consider expanding the fellowship in future years based on this first group’s experience.
The majority of new Fellows are second semester sophomores; a few are juniors.
Fellows from the Washington Leadership Academy:
Siraj Carter, Y’Ize Lancaster, Keily Lopez, Nikola Plavsic
Fellows from Richard Montgomery High School:
Ayokami Akala, Nisha Athrey, Aina Atienza, Kyle Dalrymple, Samuel Edwards, Amna Hasni, Jade LeSchack, Sara Logsdon, Elizabeth Mai, Eliana Mazin, Vismaya Paul Mohindra, Athira Nair, Anjali Natarajan, Connor Palansky, Arman Sagmanligil, Morgan Sarlls, Maaya Senthilkumar, Kayla Sinkler, Eashana Subramanian, Lucas Thompson, Alexander Tong, Victoria Tong, Katie Yuan
For more information, visit www.theslhfoundation.org or contact Foundation Board President Mat Heyman: mat@theslhfoundation.org or 240-793-8849.
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