TELLING OUR STORY: 2021 Founder's Award Winner Sonora Middle School

Everyone has a story and the students of EAST at Sonora Middle School are no different! This year they shared their story with their peers, community, district leadership, and ultimately the EAST network and found themselves to be one of the recipients of the 2021 EAST Conference Founder’s award.

Guadalupe Granados: 3 years in EAST, 7th Grade

Zane Turner : 2 years in EAST, 7th Grade

Katelyn Spurlock: 6 years in EAST, 7th Grade

Colee Ratchford: 5 years in EAST, 7th Grade

Dixie Stevens: 2 years in EAST, 7th Grade

Corbin Sandy: 6 years in EAST, 7th Grade

Meredith Villanueva: 3 years in EAST, 6th Grade

Sala Jongewaard: 3 years in EAST, 6th Grade

Natalie Robles: 4 years in EAST, 7th Grade

Emily Parks: 4 years in EAST, 6th Grade

Laura Capacho: 2 years in EAST, 7th Grade

Liah Tovar: 2 years in EAST, 7th Grade

Mr. Ratchford: It is just our mindset that we will apply for Founder’s every year even if we are not eligible or don’t think we have done as much as we could have. It really helps them see our whole program, evaluate what classmates have been working on and come together as a conference team to prepare for the EAST conference. It forces us to get organized and to practice telling our story. Guadalupe: This year especially, Mr. Ratchford pushed us to meet deadlines and encouraged us to be better every day. No one says that we are doing this to win Founder’s. We just did it to tell our story.

Zane: “Fish or Friends” was easily our favorite but probably our most difficult too. Katelyn: We are using an underwater drone to try and locate an endangered species of fish. It’s always fun to try new things and get outside to learn, but it isn’t just about the underwater drone. Colee: We are also using ArcGIS to map and look at buffer zones around the rock quarry. We are building seismic sensors with an Arduino to measure impact on their habitat from the dynamite blasts mainly because the fish we are locating use vibrations in the water to see.

Dixie and Corbin: Braylon’s Capri 1000. In this one, we think it had more of an impact on our group than it did our client. Braylon is such an inspirational kid to talk to. He motivated us to learn things and do things and reach out to others more than we have in the past. We learned so much working for him and with him. He made a huge difference in how we will do EAST in the future.

Meredith and Sala: We made an effort this year to make sure all of our projects positively impacted the community. COVID brought many challenges. We decided to put the community at the top of our list in terms of importance; you could say all of them in a way. But it was enjoyable to work with ALL of our teachers and principals and get recognized as a Diamond School to Watch because of our work on the SMS 360 project. It was fun to see our teachers and our school differently. We got to see what goes into virtually teaching because of linking their lessons and videos into the tour.

Emily: Yes, we have had the opportunity to apply for Founder’s in the past. We also won the overall award two years ago with three other amazing programs that we learned a lot from. Like me, some of our team were a part of the Founder’s winning team last year at Sonora Elementary. This year was different, though. Even though the requirements were the same, we had to look at it a little differently because of COVID. Our biggest issue was meeting with our group and never knowing who might be out of school. It was nice having a group that understands deadlines and planning. We had a lot of that on our team this year, so we could get it in on time when it came to videos, scrips, and submissions.

Colee: Our favorite technology was the underwater drone because we get to experience a technology that not everybody gets to use. As a program, we think that if it is a technology that not everyone is using, we should utilize that technology, and we should do inspiring stuff with it so that others might want to try and get one too for their community.

Katelyn: ArcGIS was not easy for us because we were not familiar with it; however, as we have grown as students, we got the hang of it. I think you could also say that the Arduino was pretty difficult, but luckily we had six projects using it so we could ask each other for help.

Guadalupe: Samsung, because it’s an international business but also they have already helped us grow our program already so much. When you are a finalist in the Samsung competition, they provide your class with a Samsung Engineer as a consultant that can answer questions and help you with things like your coding and project development. We would love to continue working with them on our projects.

Natalie: We primarily used social media. We were not at school when the announcement was made, so it was fun to get the email from Mr. Ratchford and the notifications on our social media accounts. When we got back to school, Dr. Dodson, our Principal, sent it out in a newsletter to our whole school, and it was cool to see others talking about what we do in EAST and why we enjoy it so much. We also had a very nice parent buy our whole program a huge cake and ice cream, and we got to celebrate together spaced out in our cafeteria. They were all proud of us, and we hope to do it again next time we are eligible.

Laura: Our teachers care about us and our success not just at Sonora but in everything we do. We have ten house teams within our school, and three of them this year are considered Innovation Academy teams, where we do hands-on learning and projects in every subject. Most importantly, that Sonora is a place of opportunity. We take EAST because we care, and our community cares about what we can do. We take action with the problems near us.

Zane: Now that EAST conference is over, our goal is to prepare our 6th graders. Because next year they will have the opportunity to go to Hot Springs, which is more challenging when you have to present in front of all those people. So then those new 7th graders can prepare the new 6th graders and so on. Each year our program will grow more, so we want to keep our projects going and help others in need.

Colee: Have confidence and don’t doubt yourself. It seems nerve-wracking, but you need to take chances in order to be a leader. And also, have fun with it, get to know your EAST team, show what you are made of, and share it. Work together and be sure to have your greatest projects upfront. Don’t leave any out because even those small projects build up your team.

Katelyn: Do something different. Push yourself and try some new type of technology. Don’t just keep doing the same thing, and have fun. Guadalupe: Look at those that won, what did they do that you didn’t, what could you improve on to show that you are a Founder’s winner.

Dixie: I think that is about a lot of the things that we have done this year. No matter what the world brings, you have to keep building. You have to keep growing and building up everyone around you. This year, it was not easy to stay positive, and we could have crumbled, but we focused on our foundation first and looked at what EAST was truly about, kept building up from there, and building up as a program can help with everyone as a team.

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