Skyview High School freshman Tylar Hedrick was one of eleven students across the country last week who recently traveled to Washington D.C. as part of the Kid Science Advisor campaign, recently launched by the White House.
The trip included a face-to-face meeting with President Barack Obama.
The campaign gives STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) students a chance to voice their opinions about what improvements can be made in schools across the country, to help students further their interests and education in the STEM subjects.
According to a White House news release, Tyler says she wants to see more hands-on opportunities and competitions for students to utilize science and technology to solve the challenges both in their local communities and at national scale by using the competitive spirit to inspire new ideas -- similar to the FabSLAM digital fabrication competition in which she participated earlier this year. She has expressed her belief that her “generation has the opportunity and responsibility to inspire changes that will improve lives.”
"One of the things I find so inspiring about these young thinkers is that they look at all these seemingly intractable problems as something that we can solve. There is a confidence when you are pursuing science. They don't consider age a barrier. They don't think, well, that's just the way things are. They're not afraid to try things and ask tough questions,” President Obama said.
Hedrick also had a chance to speak with Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Dr. John Holdren, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly, and National Science Foundation Director France Cordova during a meeting with the eleven other Kid Science Advisors to discuss what they think is important in science, technology, and innovation.
Other students who had a chance to meet the President were from Arizona, Colorado., Florida, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey and Ohio.
