​Shawmont student earns top award at City-wide Science Fair

Cierra Lyles is no stranger to city-wide competition. Competing in the competitive George Washington Carver Science Fair from 4th through 6th grade, her projects have been honored city-wide each year. Seventh grade students, however, compete on a much bigger stage with students 7th through 12th grade amongst public, parochial, private and charter schools throughout the region when they converged at Temple University on March 5th and again at Academy of Natural Sciences on March 13th. In this 7th-12th grade arena, students compete in two grade intervals in specific sciences, and then amongst the full range of students for the special honor categories. At this level, some students may choose not to compete. There are social pressures, and competing sports and studies preparing for high school applications. Cierra Lyles is not most students, and now has the hardware to show for it. She was awarded First place for 7th & 8th graders for Environmental Science, and the recipient of two special category awards including the Naval Science Award for Environmental Science and the PECO Excellence Engineering Award.

In an era of hearing the negatives about social media, and a dismal amount of girls competing in science education, Cierra is a great example of hard work and dedication being rewarded. Cierra began work on her project independently, and then worked alongside her teacher Ms. Jablow on the official entry requirements. Cierra is grateful for all the support that she’s had for this project, and also for all of the opportunities she has received while at Shawmont. She recently has represented Shawmont School preparing for the Model United Nations, and the DT Philly awards held at the Wells Fargo Center where her team earned a $1500 grant for Shawmont School. In addition, Cierra is part of a group from Shawmont that has weekly visits to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as her extracurricular softball and being among the stars of this year’s school show.