Future Leaders winner inspiring a passion for engineering in younger Colorado students
Throughout the school year, CBS Colorado along with our partners, Chevron and Colorado School of Mines, celebrate high school students excelling in science, technology, engineering and math, STEM. The Future Leaders Award comes with $1,000 and a profile on CBS News Colorado.
CBS
Abigail Reynolds is the latest Future Leaders winner. She's a junior at Castle View High School in Douglas County. She's not only preparing herself for a career in engineering, she's inspiring a passion for it in younger students.
In 11 years of doing Girl Scouts, Reynolds has earned more than 50 badges and patches.
"I've been able to try so many different things. It's honestly been a blast," she told CBS News Colorado Chief Meteorologist Dave Aguilera.
"I see you got a Colorado School of Mines badge. What was that for?" Aguilera asked.
"They hosted an engineering day where you could learn about the different engineering fields and majors that they offer at the school," Reynolds replied.
Abigail planned and hosted her own engineering day, which was at the heart of the project that earned her the Gold Award, which is the highest award the Girl Scouts offer.
"The goal of the project is to create a community service project that has a long lasting global impact," she said.
The project has to be able to sustain itself without continued support.
"My project is called Gearing 4 Engineering," she explained.
Reynolds created a website that has all the resources and materials that anyone would need to host an Engineering Expo at their school. The Expo is for students in 3rd through 8th grades. They create projects based on prompts about real world problems.
"It gets the kids attention because not only do they get to create something, they're able to create something that effects their own lives," she said. "One of the prompts this year was design a floatation device for pets because there's recent flooding with global warming."
At the Expo, each student displays their project and gets judged on certain criteria.
"There were nerves. I wanted to make sure it worked as best as possible because it was a big day for the kids getting recognized for the heard work that they did," Reynolds recalled.
All the information from her Expo is gathered on the Gearing 4 Engineering website. Reynolds also featured testimonials from women working in engineering talking about the rewards and challenges they've faced.
CBS
"This was such a valuable experience. I learned more about my abilities to lead. I feel like I've become a better problem solver because when you're creating big projects like this, you're going to face big challenges. What matters is how you come up with solutions to them," she explained. "I've also become better at time management, like setting realistic goals, staying on schedule."
"Was there anything that surprised you during this whole process?" Aguilera asked.
"I was a bit surprised by how much of an impact I was able to make with my project in just one year," Reynolds responded. "I saw in real time how many new passions were sparked from participating in my Expo."
Technology Student Association (TSA) is another passion of Reynolds. She's the president of the TSA club at Castle View. Students create projects in different categories for competition on the regional and state level. This year Reynolds won 2nd place for Photographic Technology.
"Many people, when they think about photography, they think of the artistic aspect of taking pictures, but it's also super important that you have a solid understanding of how the camera works so you're able to do different techniques with the camera," she explained.
Reynolds is getting a jump on her engineering career by getting certified in SolidWorks, a computer aided drawing (CAD) program.
"It's a very challenging software because it's very number oriented and specific, if one of your numbers doesn't add up, your entire part is just geometrically impossible," she said.
In addition to all these extracurriculars, she takes several Advanced Placement classes, a tough schedule for a junior. Reynolds thrives on challenging herself both inside and outside of the classroom.
"I'm really passionate about learning, and I feel that if you're passionate about something you find time for it," she said.
LINK: Future Leaders
CBS Colorado, Chevron, and Colorado School of Mines accepts nominations and picks Future Leaders winners from September to April every year.
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