TANMS Successfully Pilots New High School Outreach Program and Welcomes Lawndale High School as a New Precollege Partner

TANMS just welcomed 200 high school students from Lawndale High School in Centinela Valley High School District into our extended family!  For four days during this last week of May, TANMS graduate students, Kevin Fitzell, Maggie Xiao, Cai Chen, and Stephen Sasaki collaborated and team-taught the brand-new TANMS Electromagnetism and Nanoscale Motor Modules that they co-developed with physics teacher, Maria Lyn Genota, as part of the new TANMS high school outreach initiative that has been almost one year in the making.  The enthusiasm and dedication from Ms. Genota and these full-time graduate researchers have been astounding and was the invaluable driving force behind the successful implementation of this program.

Ms. Genota came to TANMS as a participant of our 2016 Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program with high recommendations from Lawndale High School principal, Paula Rodas, and UCLA MESA/CEED Director, Rick Ainsworth.  Widely recognized for her outstanding and dedicated teaching, Ms. Genota is a recipient of numerous awards including Teacher of the Year from Inglewood Unified School District in 2016, MESA Advisor of the Year for the State of California in 2007, and the Certificated Employee of the Year from Lawndale High School in 2017.  As TANMS Deputy Director, Professor Jane Chang, so well indicated, “TANMS is truly fortunate to have Ms. Genota whose dedicated effort makes it possible to broaden the impact of our ERC.”