Over the next few weeks, we'll be bringing you brief yet spectacular stories of charter high school graduates who are part of the Class of 2021! Today, we highlight Kenna Chase who recently graduated from Classical Academy in San Diego. She was one of 100 students nationwide to receive the Amazon Future Engineer scholarship this year.
Amazon’s Future Engineer program is for students who have already shown an aptitude for computer science through their high school coursework and are looking to continue their education by attaining a bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, computer engineering or other computer science related field of study.
"Engineers get to work to solve problems that haven’t been solved before. I want to be an engineer who works to make the world a better place, collaborating with a diverse team of people to develop solutions to problems," Kenna said. "I am passionate about engineering, especially its creative problem-solving process. I want to use hardware and software together to solve modern and future challenges for the betterment of society."
The scholarship also guarantees Kenna a paid internship at Amazon after her freshman year.
At Classical Academy, Kenna was able to study computer science while being an active member of the school's robotics team. Because of her academic achievements this past year, she was named the school's 2021 salutatorian.
Other nationwide organizations have also recognized Kenna's talent in the STEM field this year.
For example, Aspirations in Computing presented Kenna with its National Center for Women & Information Technology Rising Star Award because of her work in robotics coding and her encouragement of other girls to participate in STEM.
Kenna will also participate in the NCS Cyber Talent Development (CTD) group and attend the Cyber Foundations Academy through the National Cyber Scholarship Competition.
On top of all that, Kenna also plans to attend Google's 2021 Computer Science Summer Institute.
We salute Kenna as she continues her path towards a career in engineering! She plans to dually major in Mechatronics Engineering/Computer Science at CSU Channel Islands.
