Stamford Student Earns National Recognition

Information via Stamford Public Schools

STAMFORD, CT — Stamford Public Schools announced Thursday the National Center for Women and Information Technology recently selected Academy of Information Technology & Engineering (AITE) senior Adena Russel as a "national honorable mention" in the 2021 NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing.

According to a news release, Russel was nominated by AITE teacher Florina Merturi and plans to attend Cornell University in the fall. She plans to major in biometry and statistics, according to the district. (To sign up for Stamford breaking news alerts and more, click here.)

District officials said Russel currently works as a research intern at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a Department of Energy laboratory. She completed a data-driven computational biology independent research project related to the key driver mutations implicated in a particular kind of kidney cancer.

She has taken an AP Mobile Computer Science class through independent study and is enrolled in an AP Computer Science A course. She works as a freelance website designer and has created custom websites for non-profits and private businesses.

In 2019, NCWIT named Russel a 2019 Connecticut Affiliate Honorable Mention.

Further information can be found on the district website and in a NCWIT media release. Russel's profile on the NCWIT website can be read here.