Holmdel High Students Accepted Into Prestigious STEM Program

HOLMDEL, NJ — The Junior Academy, an initiative of the New York Academy of Sciences’ Global STEM Alliance welcomes senior Amanda Shayna Ahteck and junior Claudia Zhang from Holmdel High School, into its fourth cohort.

This year the Global STEM Alliance received more than 6,500 applications, of which 586 students from 57 countries were selected for the prestigious program.

“This is a tremendous honor for these young women," said Holmdel High School Principal Brian Schillaci. “Family members, friends, and our Holmdel High School community are very proud of their accomplishments."

This fall, Ahteck and Zhang along with the other accepted students will tackle "Wildfires: Tracking, Prevention, and Containment Challenge and the Aerospace Challenge," where students will design an “intelligent airliner,” making flying more efficient and fun for passengers. They will start off with a virtual four-week boot camp that will develop relevant skills in research methods, design thinking, and data analysis. Students will complete the boot camp and projects on the Academy’s proprietary virtual collaboration platform, Launchpad.

Both Ahteck and Zhang are no strangers to tackling and systematically solving research problems, having been in Holmdel’s Honors Advanced Research class since their sophomore years. Both students have been phenomenally successful with their research projects, having entered and won at various local, state and regional science competitions.

“I look forward to collaborating with students from all over the globe online on the many challenges that will be posed to us,” said Ahteck.

“It was very exciting to be accepted into the program,” said Zhang. “I look forward to collaborating with new people on global STEM challenges!”

Photo provided to Patch by the Holmdel school district.