CONGRATULATIONS to the 2024 winners of the STEMarts Apprenticeship for girls from Northern New Mexico (ages 14-20): Kyle Alvarez (Los Alamos), Zion Flores (Eagle Nest), Raziah Ko (Taos), Savanna Romero (Vadito), and Atma Budd-Rodriguez (Taos). These apprentices receive compensation for their work with the STEMarts creative team on emerging media arts projects. These projects serve to teach and communicate science, develop career readiness skills for the 21st-century workplace, and foster international collaboration as part of the STEMarts International Youth Exchange. We extend our gratitude to our team of artists and scientists who provide mentorship and training to our apprentices throughout the year.
Since joining the STEMarts team in January, the apprentices have achieved significant milestones. They have developed their own websites and acquired the skills to write monthly blog posts detailing their experiences. Through weekly online meetings, they collaborate on projects and engage with guest speakers for training sessions. Additionally, they have participated in three all-day boot camps with new students joining the program (photo below), where they learned from guest science speakers from LANL, CERN, Spaceport, and the Very Large Array, enhancing their science and space literacy. In the realm of arts, they have acquired proficiency in 3D modeling using Blender and have learned to integrate their models into the Hoverlay augmented reality app. They have also begun designing solutions for the upcoming Space for Earth Design Challenge, contributing to beta testing the lessons. Currently, they are focused on designing their own AR experiences, which will be showcased at the Los Alamos Science Fest in July.
Congratulations are also in order for Shaylee Mirabal and Alyson Mirabal (Taos Pueblo TPETD apprentices), who have been integral members of the program for several years and are now leading paid apprentice trainings. Shaylee is serving as Director Assistant and a Youth Board Member, actively learning all aspects of nonprofit business operations. They are honing their professional communication skills and their dedication and hard work are commendable.Together they developed a Weebly website lesson plan and delivered it via Zoom to the apprentices, under the mentorship of STEMarts Ambassador, Dania Loya.
And a huge shout out to Dania! Her journey with STEMarts Lab began during her high school years at Taos Academy. She went on to earn a degree in Instructional Technologies and is currently employed in UX design in Cincinnati. Despite her professional commitments, Dania remains an invaluable member of the STEMarts creative team, contributing as Production Director at events and serving as a workshop instructor. Additionally, she continues to nurture her passion for art, recently unveiling her inaugural interactive projection installation at the Ingenuity Cleveland festival. It was an innovate design where the projectors were hidden in the structure and the photographs were actual videos mapped onto the photo frame. We look forward to seeing her continued artistic endeavors.