The winds of science, technology, engineering and math, aka STEM, were blowing across the Saguaro High School campus last weekend as the school’s Sisters in STEM and Robotics team hosted local K-8 students at their annual community celebration of learning.

Students were able to see practical demonstrations of STEM concepts from their own world of such things as how circuits work, atmospheric pressure and ocean layers. Display tables were set up on the quad, and inside the Innovation Center, children were able to operate VEX robots used in competition and built by Saguaro students. 

While the event is geared toward generating interest among girls that math and science are fun, plenty of smiles were seen on the faces of little brothers, moms, dads and grandparents.  

We want to thank the dedicated Saguaro students who organized this event, as well as the Sabercat graduates who continue ‘coming home’ to support this great celebration!

Read more at The SUSD Source

And they’re pretty high rafters, too, at Chase Field.  Students representing Ingleside Middle School’s four choirs joined schools from around the Valley and state to sing the National Anthem at the Arizona Diamondbacks’ July 15 game against the Chicago Cubs.  Not only was their joint rendition stirring (imagine 800 students in chorus, standing along the first baseline), the Dbacks won!

Read more at The SUSD Source

Back in May, Diana Lopez, who was soon to graduate from Desert Mountain High School, received top honors in Scottsdale Sister Cities’ annual Young Artists and Authors Showcase competition.  Now, Diana has been named the national grand prize winner for her work, “For the Future,” by Sister Cities International, the local chapter’s governing organization!

The competition’s theme this year was “Peace by Piece: Food Security in My Community.”  Diana, who now attends the prestigious Savannah (Georgia) College of Art and Design, truly delivered a thoughtful and beautiful interpretation.

Read more at The SUSD Source

One of the many ways ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Colleges of Engineering give back is through its Engineering Projects in Community Services (EPICS) program.

It’s something that Desert Mountain High School students have been involved in for a few years now. Recently, six groups of DMHS students took part in an EPICS student design competition, and, we are proud to report, brought home two awards.  One of the teams - made up of Zack Okun, Jack Levine, Julian Kimble, Ava Jazwin, Tom Lockett, Terrence Li and Lailla Burka - designed an ergonomic wheelchair to assist paralyzed veterans. Their design took 1st place at the EPICs event last month!

Congratulations to all of the Wolves’ EPICS teams on their accomplishments this school year and for taking on real-world issues of import!

Each year, the students of Coronado High School’s Jobs for Arizona Graduates, or JAG, program continue to do amazing things!

For more than 40 years, Arizona’s JAG program has been helping young people stay in school by helping them acquire the academic, personal, leadership and vocational skills they will need to be successful following their graduation. 

Once again this year, the Coronado JAG program has outdone itself, having been named Arizona’s 2022-2023 JAG Program of the Year!  Congratulations on this outstanding achievement!

The Rotary Club of Scottsdale is the largest Rotary Club in the East Valley.  Through its Foundation, it annually awards scholarships to outstanding graduating seniors who attend SUSD’s high schools.

The scholarship is a district-wide competition that covers seven categories, plus a scholarship named after a notable Rotarian, Norval O. Tyler.

Each school may nominate no more than two students in each category.  Candidates must:

Be enrolled in an accredited university, college, community college, or vocational/technical school for the coming fall.

Provide recommendations from two teachers or other adults who are familiar with their activities in the scholarship field to which they applied.

Submit detailed essays, create business plans or digital portfolios.

Undergo Rotary Club interviews.

• McCall Visual Arts Scholarship - Olivia Greteman, Saguaro High School
• Athletics scholarship - Stella Lipson, Saguaro and Avery Wahl, Arcadia High School
• Peter J. Fish Business Scholarship - Wade Crum, Saguaro High School and Tucker Leyva, Chaparral High School
• Colonel Park Shaw First Responders Scholarship - Ryan Libby, Desert Mountain High School
• Bob Murray Performing Arts Scholarship - Spencer Wareing, Saguaro High School and Olivia Schulte, Saguaro High School
• Norval O. Tyler Scholarship - Spencer Wareing, Saguaro High School, Quinn Holden, Chaparral High School
• Peter J. Fish Science/Technology Scholarship - Savina Williams, Coronado High School and Molly Rich from Chaparral High School
• Peter J. Fish Vocational/Trade Scholarships - Juan Flores, Saguaro High School and Alina Williams, Coronado High School

These students will head to their next educational institution with a combined 71-thousand dollars’ worth of scholarship money for which they and their families are most appreciative and that will go a long way toward offsetting the ever-rising cost of post-secondary education.

Congratulations to you, students, to your teachers and guidance counselors, for bringing this great distinction to your SUSD schools.

SUSD is proud to be a beneficiary of the work of several, local Rotary Clubs. With the motto of “Service Above Self,” Rotary Clubs excel at meeting community needs that are not being met and recognizing the good works of young people who are deserving of encouragement for their efforts to better their communities.

One of those students is Catherine Dunn. Catherine was among 16 Phoenix students – two from each Phoenix City Council district - who were recognized as an Outstanding Youth Leader by the Phoenix Rotary 100 Club and the City of Phoenix.

Catherine, a student at Chaparral, open-enrolls to Chaparral from Phoenix City Council District #6, which lies along Scottsdale’s western boundary.

The Outstanding Youth Program honors the outstanding achievements of young people and their contributions to making their communities a better place.

This comes naturally to Catherine.  Her community work centers around her work with neuro-diverse young people.  She founded a learn-to-swim program for impoverished children and volunteers as a mentor for fellow, autistic teens.

She aspires to pursue a career in neuroscience and has created a podcast that celebrates and interviews neuro-diverse individuals. The podcast has already been downloaded more than 60-thousand times!

Catherine is also an outstanding student at Chaparral, where she is as fearless in the classroom … taking only Advanced Placement and Honors classes this year … as she is in the pool, where, as a member of the Chaparral swim and dive team, swimming the 100- and 200-meter butterfly.

We cannot think of a more deserving Outstanding Phoenix Youth Leader than Catherine! Congratulations!

Since 1955, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation has offered scholarships to scholastically talented, graduating high school seniors. The majority of the scholarships are underwritten by more than 300 independent corporate and college sponsors. The National Merit Scholarship Program is perhaps the most widely recognized scholarship in the U.S., and we are proud to inform you that 7 (seven) Scottsdale Unified students are among the 33-hundred high school graduates to be recognized so far in the 2023 program.

• Arcadia High School - Sebastian Brock
• Chaparral High School - Ana Dragomir, Kyle Orth
• Desert Mountain High School - Evelyn Chin, Erica Li, Morgan Taylor
• Saguaro High School - Vivek Krishnan

These SUSD scholars have been selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors based on their academic record, including course difficulty level and grades earned; their scores from the PSAT that they took as juniors; their contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay they wrote; and the recommendation of a high school official.

Sebastian, Ana, Vivek, Erica and Morgan will receive National Merit $2,500 scholarships.  Evelyn and Kyle will receive Corporate-Sponsored National Merit scholarships.

Two more National Merit Scholarship announcements will be made, in June and July.

Perhaps less known than its “Daughters” counterpart, the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, or SAR, is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history and teaching American history to future generations.

Each year, the SAR sponsors a brochure contest for middle school students in which they are challenged to create an informational brochure based on our nation’s founding documents, the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Tonalea Middle School has fully engaged in this competition in recent years with Tonalea Tigers taking 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd places.

The winning design this year belongs to Tonalea 8^th grade student Roselyn Pliego Figueroa.  What’s more, it has also been selected as the Arizona SAR Sergeant Moses Adams Brochure Contest winner!

Roselyn will receive a check for $150 and her brochure now heads to the national SAR competition.

In association with Scottsdale Public Library and the Scottsdale Artists’ School, the Scottsdale Sister Cities Association held its 35th Annual Young Artist Competition this spring.

This local version of an international contest encourages youth to express their mission through original artwork.  The theme for this year’s contest was “Food Security in My Community.”

We are so proud of our talented SUSD artists, whose winning works were on display at the Civic Center Library during the month of April!

SUSD students took all 5 prizes in the local Sister Cities competition, with Desert Mountain’s Diana Lopez taking first place.

We also want to congratulate teachers Anne Wilkins from Desert Mountain and Carson Bilger from Chaparral, whose instruction inspired our students’ entries.