Recipients of the STEM Innovation Awards Announced

Pete CodellaNews

The STEM Action Center will hold their first STEM Innovation Awards in partnership with Utah Technology Council at their annual Utah Innovation Awards luncheon on Thursday, April 30, 2015.

The STEM Innovation Awards are an opportunity to recognize a student, teacher, counselor, principal and mentor in Utah who are excelling in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Nominations were open to the general public from February to March of this year. The STEM Action Center team and the STEM Action Center Board, through a rigorous process, chose this year’s honorees.

• Student: Taylor Boardman, Senior at Delta High School
• Teacher: John Teuscher, Career and Technical Education teacher at Ogden Preparatory Academy
• Principal: Canda Mortensen, Assistant Principal at Freedom Elementary
• Mentor: Lorie Millward, Curator of Curiosity and Inquiry, and Director of Education at Thanksgiving Point Institute
• Counselor: Mindy Nelson, School Counselor at NUAMES (Northern Utah Academy for Math, Engineering, and Science)

Dr. Tamara Goetz, executive director of the Utah STEM Action Center, along with Richard Nelson, president and CEO of Utah Technology Council will present the award.
“This is an opportunity to acknowledge and pay tribute to those that are giving students opportunities inside and outside of the classroom to engage more fully with STEM,” said Dr. Goetz. “The STEM Action Center STEM Innovation awards are unique. They recognize that it takes ‘a village’ to achieve success. These awards recognize the commitment and contributions from all of those that play a critical role in the success of STEM education in Utah.”

The teacher, counselor, principal and mentor will be recognized and will receive a trophy and $2,000 to grow STEM in Utah, while the student will receive a trophy and a Mini iPad.