Fife student chosen for aerospace program

courtesy of Melissa Edwards

WASHINGTON AEROSPACE SCHOLARS (WAS) IS AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM FOR HIGH SCHOOL JUNIORS FROM ACROSS WASHINGTON STATE. The program emphasizes science, technology, engineering and math, and encourages students to consider careers in these fields.

A Fife High School junior will participate in a competitive aerospace program this summer.

Cheyenne Contreras has been accepted into Phase One of the 2009-10 cycle of The Washington Aerospace Scholars (WAS) Program at The Museum of Flight in Seattle.

WAS is an educational program for high school juniors from across Washington. The goal of the program is to provide opportunities for high-school students interested in science, technology, engineering and math.

“These students competed against a strong set of requirements, including writing a personal essay and demonstrating proficiency in math and science,” museum President and CEO, Dr. Bonnie J. Dunbar said. “We are very proud of them.”

Contreras was among more than 240 students who were accepted into the WAS program last November. She is excited for the challenge.

“I’ve always been pretty good at math, so engineering is looking pretty interesting,” Contreras said.

Although she has been accepted into Phase One of the program, she must still compete against other students to qualify for the two-month summer residency program, beginning this June.

For the next five mon-ths, the full-time Running Start student will be studying a distance-learning curriculum designed by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) via the Internet. This rigorous curriculum covers topics such as the history of human spaceflight. Scholars must write essays, compute space-related math problems and design graphics that illustrate their ideas.

Based on her academic performance on these distance-learning lessons, Contreras may be selected to attend one of four summer residencies hosted at the Museum of Flight. She feels pretty confident about her chances of making it into the residency program and hopes this program will help her determine if she would want to work for NASA someday.

If Contreras qualifies for the residency experience, she will collaborate with other participants to design a human mission to Mars. During this time, professional engineers, scientists and university students will guide the WAS Scholars to pursue degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

“It is a pretty cool deal,” said Mark Knight, Fife High School principal. Contreras is the third student chosen to participate from Fife High School since Knight became principal three years ago.

“It’s a great way for students to get some good experience in this field and to see if this is something they would want to do as a career. What a feather in their cap.”

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