“Engineering has been a passion for me since probably the third grade.”
Eighth-grader Sienna Lepe loves school.
Seriously, she loves it.
Her face lights up when she talks about some of the different projects and opportunities she’s had over the years.
She’s currently enrolled in Krueger Middle School’s magnet program, the Krueger School of Applied Technologies (KSAT).
On this day, she had just finished a Zoom meeting with the Mayor of San Antonio.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Her love of all things engineering started back at Roan Forest Elementary School.
“We had a chance to join a robotics club and I wanted to join it to see how it all went. And when joining it, they also taught us about how robots and engineering are used out in real life in real day jobs and activities,” said Sienna. “Mrs.Toriello [the robotics club teacher at Roan Forest] really opened my eyes to it. I know that if I wouldn't have gone to robotics club and if I wouldn't have been talking to her or learning anything from her, I probably wouldn't be as happy as I am right now. She really opened my eyes and she made this a really big deal to me, and I appreciate her doing that for me.”
Once Sienna got engineering on the brain she couldn’t get enough.
She decided to apply to KSAT.
Her opportunities there have sky-rocketed her passion.
Pun intended.
“Some of the cool things we’ve gotten to experience is Team America,” said Sienna. “We are in charge of our own rockets. We get to decide on the design, every single aspect, from construction to the actual flight of it. So, that’s one amazing thing.”
She’s also enjoyed their Minecraft lessons, escape room challenges and being a part of CyberPatriots.
While Sienna is loving every minute of her time at KSAT—she’s so excited about high school.
She plans to attend the Engineering and Technologies at Academy (ETA) at Roosevelt High School.
“I have an older brother who goes there and he always tells me all about it and I am so excited to be able to actually go to that school. It's like, I know for sure I already want to go there. I'm hoping to join the CyberPatriots class. I want to take one of the robotics and aerospace engineering classes, so basically the majority of technology classes.”
After that, she’s got some choices to make.
She’s taken field trips to the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) to see their Engineering program. She’s also learned a lot about the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in her classes. So she’s not real sure where she wants to go.
She’s only in eighth grade. She’s got some time.
From there, it’s straight to the moon.
“It's would be a huge thing for me if I were to actually be able to get into NASA. I'm not completely sure on exactly which engineering field I want to go on, but I know for sure that I want to be able to be in the engineering field. I know that's what I want to do with the rest of my life.”
