On Wednesday, 21 students from Manual Arts and West Adams Prep embarked on what they believed was going to be a routine school field trip.  Yes, they were excited about going to Palm Springs and being hand selected to go on this trip, but little did they know that they would get to interact with world class scientists, discuss education with former Senator Daschle, and walk away at the end of the day defeating twelve teams of top Amgen scientists in a engineering challenge.    

Our students had the exceptional opportunity to take part in team building activities with Amgens top executives and scientists at the companys annual executive directors meeting. The Go Green! Solar Challenge activity was one of the major team building events at this years meeting. A team of students from Manual Arts and West Adams, hand selected by science teachers, were chosen for their keen interest and demonstrated talent in science and engineering.   
 
The West Adams and Manual Arts teams competed directly against twelve teams of Amgen scientists in building and racing a solar car and recycled materials car. West Adams won the solar car challenge and Manual Arts won in the recycled car challenge defeating senior Amgen scientists with hundreds of years of collective experience.  The students were ecstatic that their creative engineering and manufacturing led to victory. 
 
After the solar car challenge, the students had the unique opportunity to meet former Senator Tom Daschle. After a few remarks, the Senator opened up the or questions and allowed the students to guide the discussion.  The students were extremely poised and professional and asked the senator tough questions about education.  After the discussion, the students had a photo session with the Senator and many took the opportunity to talk to him one on one.  The Senator was very impressed and stayed and answered all their questions and posed for as many photos as the students wanted. 
 
TheStudents then met with three senior Amgen scientists. The panel included Joe Militech, Senior Vice President of Research and Development, Madhu Balachandran, Senior Vice President of Manufacturing and Julio Medina, Executive Director of Research.  Each scientist discussed their career and encouraged the students to continue on the path to higher education and to pursue careers in science. The students were extremely engaged and asked a lot of great questions.  The scientists were thrilled to see such enthusiasm, impressed with their intellect and expressed their wish to interact with students on an ongoing basis.
 
At the end of the day as the students climbed onto the bus, they were glowing.  They were not thinking about how long the day was, or the bus ride home, instead they were thinking about the endless possibilities that lay before them.  They were inspired to keep studying, to work harder, and to achieve great things. They left feeling that anything was within their reach.  
 
Many, many thanks to Amgen for making such an amazing opportunity available to our students.