Rocketing Toward the Future: MIT-bound Cleveland High grad receives $5K scholarship

Jul. 5—Graciela Rodriguez was 4 years old when her father brought home a small screwdriver for her to use. She was fascinated with the tool and disappeared into her bedroom to play with it.

When her parents checked on her, Rodriguez had completely dismantled her play kitchen.

Rodriguez remembers being proud of herself, and she knew she had an affinity for building and breaking down the things around her to better understand them.

"I always liked figuring things out," she said.

Now, the graduate of Cleveland High in Rio Rancho will be able to follow her dreams of creating with the help of the Aerospace Corporation Future STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Leaders Scholarship. It's a $5,000 award she will use to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall.

Rodriguez first received the Outstanding Young Researcher award at the Rio Rancho Student Research Expo..

She took the project to the regional competition at the Central New Mexico STEM Research Challenge science fair, where she placed second in the physics category and received a special third place award from the Aerospace Corp. for its special sponsored category. These awards were given to students whose projects caught the eyes of Aerospace representatives. This science fair was where an Aerospace representative noticed her project .

"My project (was) about how build orientation affects the durability of 3D printed parts," she said. "I gave her my whole spiel, she told me to apply for (the scholarship)."

For her project, Rodriguez decided to 3D print small parts to determine which way of printing them would be able to withstand the most force. She did experiments with variations of build orientations and then tested each piece in a torque and tension test, with results shown on another panel of her board.

Rodriguez is no stranger to science fairs. In a previous year, she constructed a cello with a neck that can be taken apart and placed in a box for safekeeping. She said her inspiration came from horror stories about cellos being broken or lost during airplane travel.

The day of her high school graduation, Rodriguez received the email that told her she would be the recipient of the scholarship.

"I was like, 'This is just a great day,'" she said.

Bernie Carpenter, senior project leader and a member of the scholarship selection committee at the Aerospace Corp., said Rodriguez was chosen because of her passion and devotion to creating.

"Graciela ranked highest out of all Albuquerque area applications for the Future STEM Leaders Scholarship. Her background, interest areas and scholastic ranking made her an ideal recipient, but she continued to set herself apart thanks to the content she provided in her application responses," Carpenter said.

"Those further demonstrated that she has depth of thought and objectivity needed to be successful during the difficult first two years of college. In short, I think she has high potential to be successful in pursuit of her (Bachelor of Science degree) in engineering, and could continue on to graduate school if she chooses."

As a high school student, Rodriguez was very engaged with her school community and, with a weighted GPA of 4.43, always had a strong focus on academics.

From playing the cello in the orchestra to planning rebuttals in speech and debate, learning leadership skills in Key Club and competing in the governor's STEM challenge , Rodriguez has been brushing up her skills to become a competitive student at MIT.

Rodriguez is hoping to update her school materials and purchase textbooks with the scholarship she has received.

"The scholarship will help with affording my tuition, and beyond that, I can use it to help with the associated costs, like buying a laptop or for school," Rodriguez said. "The amount of my tuition that I can't cover with outside scholarships will be completely covered with this scholarship. Outside of that, I have a few other scholarships, so having extra money will mean that I can get a new laptop, which will be very nice."

Rodriguez knows she wants to continue working in the STEM field, though she is trying to decide if she wants to major in physics or engineering. She also wants time to other MIT offerings, such as auditioning for the school orchestra.

"I'm hoping to play the cello at MIT, and I'm really excited about that," Rodriguez said.