The school has gained yet another reason to be proud. Senior Eric Beshears, recently won a STEM award.

Beshears is the first student from this school to ever win this award and the second in Madison County. The entry process is highly selective, and Beshears was nominated because of his two years in robotics, dedication and extensive work in Solid Edge (computer-aided design software).

While most other students were off relaxing and having fun during the summer, Beshears spent hours laboring to improve his Solid Edge skills. He attended workshops, seminars and even worked from home to sharpen his skills for the next competition. This extra time and effort led to his nomination for a greatly increased score in the Best Robotics Competition.

“Eric worked all summer on improving his Solid Edge skills to overcome his second place in CAD at the Best Robotics Competition. This year he tied for first place,” robotics teacher Rachel Simons said.

The STEM award is an award for outstanding performance in the field of science, technology, engineering or mathematics. Beshears won his based on his improvement in robotics, and skill in programming.

“You have to be nominated by a teacher and then selected by the school to represent Sparkman,” Beshears said.

Beshears was silently nominated by Simons. Simons says she was asked to provide a student, and Beshears was the first person that came to mind. Beshears was selected by the school and declared the winner by the Madison County Board of Education. Beshears did not know he was up for the award until he won it.
“I was really happy to have a formal recognition of my work,” Beshears said.