Fish & Richardson Awards Space Camp Scholarships to Three Local Students

Fish & Richardson announced today that full scholarships have been awarded to three San Diego middle school students from The Preuss School UCSD – Daniela Navarrete, Kebron Russom, and Meliya Russom – to attend the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama this summer. The goal of Fish’s Space Camp Scholarship program – which the firm has run for 18 consecutive years – is to get middle school students excited about the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Fish launched the Space Camp Scholarship program in 1999 and has since sent over 450 students to Space Camp on full scholarships.

Fish attorneys, including Veronica Sandoval who leads the program in San Diego, select the scholarship winners based on a written application and an in-person interview. Each year, Fish sends 33 students – from economically disadvantaged areas in the 11 cities across the country where the firm has offices – along with teacher chaperones to Space Camp.

In San Diego, the students were selected from The Preuss School UCSD, a unique charter middle and high school for low income students who strive to become the first in their families to graduate from college. The scholarship winners – who received full tuition, round-trip airfare, and accommodations – spent six days at Space Camp experiencing simulated space shuttle missions, participating in programs on space exploration, and learning about mission control.

“It is a privilege to meet these impressive students each year, and to have the opportunity to foster their interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM),” said Roger Denning, managing principal of Fish’s San Diego office. “STEM education is what will enable the next generation of innovators to develop new technology that drives our economy. These young people are our future STEM leaders, and we need to do everything we can to engage and excite them.”

After the students return from Space Camp, many of them meet with the attorneys from Fish to “report on their mission” and talk about their experiences as junior astronauts for a week. For the attorneys, it is another opportunity to encourage the students to keep on exploring STEM and to excel in their studies when they return to school in the fall.