Eleven outstanding female high school students from Kirkland gathered with family and friends at a reception at the Lake Washington School District Administration Building in Redmond on March 21 to accept accolades from the Kirkland-Redmond Branch of AAUW.

Altogether, the seven district high schools chose twenty young women as their outstanding Junior Class female students to be honored for their excellence in Science, Technology, or Math.

The STEM honorees who attend school in Kirkland included, from Juanita High School: Maggie Jiang, Science; Jenna Everard, Technology; and Kaitlyn Nguyen, Math; from Lake Washington High School: Taryn Chisholm, Science; Sunny Zheng, Technology; and Natasha Hanna, Math; from Emerson High School: Mira Mahugh, Technology; and Megan Hetherington, Math; and from International Community School: Emma Sadjo, Science; Allison Li, Technology; and Elif Usta, Math.

The young women received a certificate of recognition and a gift to recognize their achievement. Carly Waude, a graduate of Western Washington University, spoke to them about her experiences at McMurdo Research Station in Antarctica and encouraged them to take advantage of the opportunities that open up to them through furthering their STEM education, no matter what their eventual major may be.

AAUW nationally supports equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy and research. Locally, the Kirkland-Redmond Branch organizes the High School STEM Scholars Program; supports Tech Trek, a one-week summer immersion STEM camp for 8th grade girls; provides a Cascadia Community College scholarship for a woman returning to school after an absence; and volunteers at Bellevue College for the annual spring Expanding Your Horizons Career Conference for schoolgirls. For more information on the Kirkland-Redmond Branch of AAUW, visit kr-wa.aauw.net.