Press release:
The Washington Aerospace Scholars program is pleased to announce that Drew Hidalgo from Aviation High School and Jacob Hallock from West Seattle High School will be participating in one of the four WAS Summer Residency sessions held in June and July at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Washington Aerospace Scholars (WAS) is a competitive educational program for high school juniors from across Washington State.

These scholars are among the 160 students who qualified for the Washington Aerospace Scholars Summer Residency program from 290 students who applied in November. To qualify for the residency program, they spent six months studying a NASA-designed, distance-learning curriculum via the Internet and have been selected to attend one of the four residencies hosted at The Museum of Flight in Seattle this summer based on their academic performance on the distance-learning lessons. During the residency experience, they will collaborate with the other student participants on the design of a human mission to Mars. WAS scholars are guided by professional engineers, scientists, university students and certified educators as they plan these missions. The WAS program is designed to inspire students to pursue degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) but the students are divided into teams which also require them to learn about mission management, budgets, the legal aspects of space exploration, and medicine.

In addition to the design of the human mission to Mars, they and the other WAS scholars will also participate in a number of hands-on engineering challenges. These challenges included design, construction and deployment of robotic rovers, model rockets, lander devices, and payload lofting systems. Summer residency participants will also received briefings from experts in the fields of engineering, science, physics, medicine, project management, risk management, and space exploration, such as Dr. Bonnie J. Dunbar, NAE, retired NASA astronaut. They will also visit Everett, WA, for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Boeing Commercial Airplane assembly plant, (including the new 787), tour Aerojet’s Redmond facilities, and the engineering laboratories at the University of Washington. As a graduate of WAS, these students will join over 700 program alumni, representing 170 different Washington high schools.

A new addition to the Summer Residency this year is our WAS Twitter account. Incorporating Twitter into the Aerospace Scholars program is a fun way for the scholars to keep their parents, family and friends back at home informed as to what they are doing during the week. WAS will be posting daily events to give parents an update on what is going on, and students will be able to post as well giving their own insights of the program. If you already have a Twitter account, you can follow us with the username @WASMission2Mars.

All room and board are provided to students free of charge by the Washington Aerospace Scholars Foundation. The program has been supported by Governor Chris Gregoire, The Apex Foundation, The Aldarra Foundation, The Boeing Company, Microsoft, Battelle, The Washington Space Grant Consortium, GenCorp and individual donors. The Museum of Flight hosts both the program administration and the summer residency sessions. Additional partners include NASA Johnson Space Center for curriculum development, the Washington State Governor’s Office, and Washington State Legislators.

Since the program launched in 2006, students from 260 different public, private, and home school organizations in 151 public school districts have participated in WAS. Our alumni association tracks scholars after they graduate high school, and we are excited that over 77% of our reporting alumni have told us that they are pursuing a college degree in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) field. WAS alumni are attending some of the top engineering colleges and universities across the U.S. and participating in a variety of amazing internships including opportunities with NASA Johnson Space Center, The Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium, The Boeing Company, The Environmental Protection Agency, and The Museum of Flight.
As the years progress, we continue to hear great things from our alumni. Members of our first alumni class of 2007 are currently juniors in college, and we look forward to hearing from them as they make their way into the workforce.

Washington Aerospace Scholars will be accepting applications for students and teachers in early September for the 2011-2012 program cycle; visit www.museumofflight.org/was to download an application. WAS participants must be high school juniors, United States citizens and Washington State residents. Teachers must be currently practicing, Washington State certified educators, and must also be US Citizens. The deadline for applications is November 4, 2011.

For more information, please contact Washington Aerospace Scholars at 206-764-5866 orwaaerospacescholars@museumofflight.org. Founded in 2006, Washington Aerospace Scholars is an educational program for high school juniors from across Washington State. The program emphasizes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and encourages students to consider careers in these fields.

The non-profit Museum of Flight is one of the largest independent air and space museums in the world. The Museum’s collection includes more than 150 historically significant air- and spacecraft, as well as the Red Barn®—the original manufacturing facility of the Boeing Co. The Museum’s aeronautical library and archival holdings are the largest on the West Coast. More than 140,000 students are served annually by the Museum’s on-site and outreach educational programs — the most extensive museum-based youth aviation and space education program in the country. The Museum is the only aviation museum in Washington State that is both nationally accredited with the American Association of Museums and a Smithsonian affiliate. Visit: http://www.museumofflight.org.