Pueblo County High School space design team recognized for finishing in Top 10 nationally

Colorado State Sen. Nick Hinrichsen paid visit to Pueblo County High School Friday morning to recognize a team of six students for their top-10 finish in the StellarXplorers VIII space design competition.

Shawn Cunningham, Aidan Hayes, Clayton McPherson, Katelynn Neal, Araceli Otero and Li Hong Sweet-Seip competed with nine other high schools in the National Finals at the Space Center Houston from April 21-23. The team designed a satellite and worked through an 8-hour scenario given to them by judges.

"It's always exciting when students take what they learn in the classroom and don't just learn it to pass the test," Hinrichsen said. "When you have a passion for it, want to go beyond, cultivate that knowledge and apply it in ways that is going to make quality of life for all of us better — that's something we should celebrate."

More:Pueblo County High School team among ten finalists in national space design competition

A team from Palos Verdes Peninsula High School in Rolling Hills Estates, California, took home the first-place prize at the National StellarXplorers Competition.

While the team of Pueblo County High School students did not win the national competition, it held the distinction of being the only team from Colorado to qualify. Members also got to meet employees from aerospace industry titans like Lockheed Martin and SpaceX.

"They had a mingle time where we got to introduce ourselves, say what we were interested in and how we might continue on this path," Otero said. "We were surrounded by a lot of important people that we didn't really know until the very end."

One of the aerospace professionals was fellow Coloradan Sonia Phares, vice president of engineering and technology at Lockheed Martin Space.

"We were standing in line for breakfast and we met (Phares) there," Neal said. "She was just standing behind us at breakfast and we were talking to her. She wound up being one of the judges."

"We had a friend judging us," Otero said.

This year was the first year the Pueblo County High School StellarXplorers team attend the national competition, but not the first time they qualified. In 2020, the Hornets were ranked third in the nation but were unable to attend the final competition due to the pandemic.

Cunningham, McPherson and Sweet-Seip are 2022 graduates of Pueblo County High. However, Hayes, Neal and Otero said they plan on competing in StellarXplorers again next year.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo County High School space design team top 10 nationally