Acera student named semifinalist in NASA Power to Explore Challenge

Somerville resident Ada Brolan, a second grade student at the Acera School in Winchester, has been named one of 15 K-4th grade semifinalists in NASA’s Future Engineers Power to Explore Challenge.

To be considered, students had to write a 250 word entry outlining a mission that uses Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) to explore a location with limited light. They had to include details about their mission's exploration to the deepest, darkest, and dustiest places, including where they would go, what they would explore, and how they would use their own special 'super' power to achieve mission success. NASA received more than 1,700 applications from K-12th grade students around the country.

Brolan submitted her essay – in which she chose to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa – along with fellow classmates in Emily Achilles Stefanich’s Acera School classroom. She now moves on to the finalist stage where they narrow down the 15 to three finalists, and eventually a grand prize winner. All semifinalist essays are available on NASA’s Power to Explore website.

“Our class was extremely excited and proud of Ada, and celebrated her win with grace and lots and lots of joy,” said Stefanich. “We even had classmates begin making Ada a crown and a flag that could celebrate her semi-finalist status. This was a huge growing experience for our class and everyone in our class should be proud of their hard work.”

Founded in 2010, Acera is an independent K-9th grade school for gifted kids in Greater Boston. In addition to K-9th grade education, Acera offers daily after-school enrichment programs as well as February, April, and summer vacation camps.

Acera is hosting a free Girls in STEM event on Saturday, May 18th. For more information about this and other events, visit aceraschool.org.

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