03-06-2025
Coventry middle school pair shine with creativity and excellence
COVENTRY — Two middle school students have demonstrated their creativity, ingenuity and determination, proudly representing the town at the Connecticut Invention Convention State Finals.
Seventh-grader Dominik Grzywinski from Capt. Nathan Hale School and fourth-grader Emma Fillmore from G.H. Robertson School presented their projects at the CIC. The organization pushes students to solve real-world problems by using engineering design processes.
During the STEAM Night, which happened last April, the two students presented their invention logs and prototypes. They also did presentations at school-level events.
Grzywinski was coached by Cindy Wilbur, a K-12 STEM specialist. His invention is called Vision Tech and is an app to help reduce stress.
As for Fillmore, she was coached by Stacey Fortin, a Challenge and Enrichment teacher. She created The Lil' Helper, which is a wearable tracker case to prevent children from being separated from their parents.
More than 20,000 inventors throughout the state presented creations and Grzywinski and Fillmore were in the top 4.5% selected to participate in the state finals.
The state finals took place at the University of Connecticut's Gampel Pavilion. For the event, the two students had to prepare detailed display boards and present their projects to a panel of state judges.
With her wearable tracker case, Fillmore was selected to go to the 11th annual Raytheon Technologies Invention Convention U.S. Nationals. The event will take place at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan in 2026.
This is the second time in two years that a student from Fortin's class advanced to the national level.
