Entries were submitted. Decisions were made. STEM Scholarships were given. And 23 students from Canyon School District packed up their bags and headed off to STEM summer camp. We only wish we could’ve been flies on the wall at each of the different camps. From Utah to Oregon, from space exploration to graphics & robots, each student chose a specialty camp to attend with the money they received from the RizePoint STEM scholarship program.

One particular recipient of the scholarship was Amelia Slama-Catron, a freshman from Hillcrest High School, who went to Marine Investigations Camp at Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport Oregon. “We counted shrimp and collected data on them to help out a PhD student with her research,” Amelia explained, “I had such a fun time learning from experts and college students.”

Students, ranging from 5th to 10th grade, applied for the STEM scholarship with a personal explanation of their own ambitions to learn at STEM camp. In many cases, this was their first summer camp experience.

Issac Willkins, a 6th grader from Butler Middle School was able to attend GREAT Middle School Graphics and Robotics to learn about three dimensional programming. The students had the opportunity to make their very own games for their home computers. Wilkins wrote to RizePoint, “Thank you so much for the scholarship to my STEM camp this summer! It was such a great opportunity to be able to go, and have so much fun.”

The Salt Lake Tribune noted there is a critical shortage of engineers in Utah, which inspired us to start this scholarship in the first place. We look forward to continuing this STEM scholarship program and hope to spark excitement in the future generation of the STEM industry as well.