200 Union City students in grades 1 through 12 were honored for their recent participation in the district-wide science fair, with awards handed out on Saturday and a Jose Marti STEM Academy graduate who now works for NASA serving as guest speaker.
Ramzi Saber, a 2021 graduate of JMSA, currently works as an astrophysicist after graduating from Cal Tech in Pasadena. He spoke to the student award winners and their parents, stressing the importance that you do not have be a genius to succeed. Hard work and commitment is the key to achieving the goals you have in life, personally and professionally.
Union City Board of Education STEM Supervisor Nadia Makar credits the commitment of the science teachers in the district to the department’s success. Working as a team, focusing on the students’ success is key, and the main reason the American Chemical Society has awarded the science and STEM program as the best research program in the country for the past two years.
Union City’s STEM program begins in the elementary grades, getting students interested at an early age, so when they reach the high school level, they are committed to doing research and being mentored in various fields of science.