Community Champions: Parkland Middle STEM team advances to Florida nationals

Parkland Middle School will represent the Borderland at a national STEM competition this summer.

Students will travel to Orlando, Fla., this month after becoming TSA State Champions during the school year.

The Parkland Middle School STEM team is this week’s ABC-7 Community Champions.

The Parkland team earned the most first place wins at the state-level in April, competing in events that center around four subjects: technology, science, engineering, and math.

Eighteen students qualified to compete nationally, 13 more than in its first year as a team.

Parkland STEM teacher Raquel Kuker said that the opportunity is an honor for a few reasons.

“First, this is only our second year competing so we are still rookies,” Kuker said, “Second, the majority of the schools who compete are private or charter schools and we don’t have the resources they have, yet we were able to easily beat them to win State Champs.”

Events vary from “catapult design” to “forensic technology.”

But Parkland 8th-grader Rebecca Enriquez says the STEM team offers more than a championship title.

“I want to carry a career in mechanical engineering so I feel like this experience will help me get to where I want to be as my goal,” Enriquez said. “It’s going to give me just more experience and confidence to get to where I need to be.”

Kuker said the team is still in need of travel funds. Ysleta ISD covered most of the expenses and the STEM team has raised $2,300, but it is still lacking money to cover fees, airline tickets, and hotel.

The Parkland STEM team asks the public to donate to their GoFundMe page. The STEM competition is June 21 in Florida.