Four Upper School students attended the virtual 2020 United States Naval Academy (USNA) Summer STEM Program
Admiral Farragut Academy had the distinguished honor to have four Upper School students accepted into the 2020 United States Naval Academy (USNA) Summer STEM Program. This program is perfect for students considering careers such as coders, game developers, designers, or robotics engineers.
Admiral Farragut Academy students pictured left to right: Ryan Almstadt ‘23, Hans Renlund ‘24, Madison Hollingsworth ‘23, and Lars Renlund ‘24
USNA Summer STEM selection process
The selection process was tough with over 10,000 high school applicants from high schools in all 50 states along with all US Territories. Just 200 students were selected to attend the program based on their applications that required top grades in their classes, a variety of participation in their school, after school activities in sports and clubs, service in their community, rising leadership responsibilities, and a solid interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics classes or programs.
Farragut students selected
Congratulations to the following students who participated:
Program goes virtual
USNA leadership worked quickly to find a way to continue with their summer programs by restructuring the entire curriculum to be online.
“I was prepared to have a summer where I had nothing to do because everything I was going to do was canceled,” said Lars Renlund. “But then one day out of the blue, USNA sent an email saying that the first 200 to reply could go to an online version of the camp. I was thrilled and replied immediately.”
Each Farragut student attended the program for five days during June, where via their online classrooms they watched, listened, and participated in STEM individual and team activities, as well as learned about the US Naval Academy history and their 25 different subject majors and dozens of extracurricular clubs, sports, and activities. They also took a fun online tour of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.
“Doing it digitally was sort of limited to what we could do, but I still had a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Hans Renlund.
The USNA STEM Program gives students the opportunity to experience real-life applications of math and science principles through hands-on practical learning from distinguished Naval Academy professors. The Academy’s current students, called midshipmen, help run the Summer STEM Program and act as mentors to the participants.
This is a great reminder that “success is never accidental” and thank you to these four students for representing Farragut during these unusual times!
