CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- Ainsley Berney, a Tomahawk Creek Middle School student, was selected out of more than 600 statewide applicants to participate in the Virginia Science and Technology Engineering and Applied Mathematics (STEAM) Academy’s summer program, Summer STEAM.
The award-winning program is an intensive, immersive, residential academy intended to inspire and expose middle school students from across Virginia to STEAM content, applied learning and leadership development.
Since 2013, nearly 500 students have successfully completed the program, including 186 this summer at three separate week-long sessions.
"The first thing they said was there are not that many women in engineering," Ainsley said. "They hope that every one of us, one day, went into a career with engineering because the world needs more women engineers."
Ainsley Berney scientifically ranks CBS 6 This Morning anchor Rob Cardwell as "Somewhat Cool", slightly higher than Justin Bieber.
Ainsley attended the Shenandoah University session where she studied engineering, innovation and inventions. Her team built a gramophone, learned about patents, created a product, wrote a patent application and prepared a presentation on the Mars rovers for the final session.
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