JFK researchers win NASA Tech Rise Student Challenge

Students from JFK High School are reaching for the stars and soaring to new heights - their invention picked as a winner of the NASA Tech Rise Student Challenge. 

A group of seven JFK students share an unbreakable bond - a deep passion for protecting the island and its natural resources, and a love for STEM.  So, what does a team of pre-engineering honors students do when given  the chance to together put their minds to the test, and attempt to address climate issues? 

Taking the phrase “the sky is the limit” literally, the group now securing a spot among 60 winning school teams selected in the NASA Techrise Student Challenge for their experiment design: Hunting for Microplastics in the Stratosphere. 

Project manager of Team Air: Islanders Rise, Clifford Ecal, explained how they got this far, telling KUAM News, “We created an experiment called hunting for microplastics in the stratosphere. So, this experiment focuses on finding microplastics in the stratosphere and seeing if UV radiation would degrade it—if it would emit methane gas, and then that methane gas would eventually trap a lot of heat, and we’re worried about that.” 

A concern the team had before blasting off into the stratosphere, the group already ridding our beaches of the harmful fragments, this experiment, now an extension of that environment-rooted mission. 

Jillard De Fiesta, who is in charge of experiment design, said, "What it contributes to our society—the research of microplastics is still very new—still very in its early stages of research, so we would like to contribute something to that research, and this experiment will allow us to do that.”

Contributions were also made by seniors Gabriel Bansil, Jahn Fabella, Leanelyn Tolentino, Levis Bawit, and Junior Jenna Sharma. 

Sharma, the team's youngest member, says his mission is to encourage others, noting, “I wanna inspire people to really put themselves out there! Even if the work hard, just know that you’re able to do it—you should just be ambitious and try to solve things that may help the world around us.” 

Guiding them to new heights is their teacher, Colette Beausoliel, who hopes this win will send a message to the rest of the island. “I think they show what’s possible for all of our kids on Guam. It’s not just John F. Kennedy High School, but, if students want to achieve, they can," she said.

The countdown for this JFK team to build their out-of-this world experiment is t-minus four months.