Alex Walker was the Weber High School recipient of the EnergySolutions Foundation scholarship in 2008. On May 25, 2010 he graduated from Weber High School in Pleasant View, Utah with $1.4 million in scholarships. This included an appointment to both the United States Naval Academy and the United States Military Academy at West Point, a 4-year full Navy ROTC scholarship assigned to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a 4-year full Army ROTC scholarship to Utah State University, an honors scholarship to Tulane University, a dean’s scholarship to the Colorado School of Mines, an honors scholarship and a HOBY leadership scholarship to Weber State University, an honors scholarship to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a dean’s scholarship to Utah State University, a science scholarship to Westminster College and several cash scholarships from private sources. Alex has asked for his Navy ROTC scholarship be transferred to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and will use that in combination with his honors scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in Aerospace and Robotics Engineering with a minor in Unmanned Flight Systems. He has been accepted into the accelerated honors program at ERAU which allows him to complete the master’s program in 5 years. His desired career is designing unmanned vehicles for use by the United States military and space exploration agencies with his ultimate goal being the design of autonomous medical evacuation and extraction vehicles.
Alex served as the captain of his school’s FIRST Robotics team during the 2008-09 school year. During his time in that position the team was asked to present a robotics demonstration at Youth Impact, an after-school facility geared to keeping at-risk inner city youth free from drug use and gang involvement. After the presentation several of the students attending the event asked Alex about getting involved in robotics. He contacted the University of Utah who set him up with sponsors to purchase their kit of parts and he spent the following years working with a group of about 10 young men teaching robotics, engineering and general life skills. The boys were so upset with losing Alex when he leaves for school next month that the center has set them up with a web cam so they can include Alex in their build sessions. Along with teaching engineering and robotics, Alex spent countless hours tutoring these kids in math, science and English and has helped them with numerous science fair projects. In March, 2010, the “little team that could” from Youth Impact was the only Lego League team invited by the FIRST organization to demonstrate their robot and promote FLL (FIRST Lego League) to the high school aged participants in the FIRST Robotics Challenge regional event held for the first time in Salt Lake City. Because of it being an inaugural regional event, executives from the FIRST organization were present including Woody Flowers, who with Dean Kaman created the FIRST Robotics program. Dr. Flowers is a professor emeritus in mechanical engineering at MIT and the highest FIRST award given is named the Woody Flowers Award. Dr. Flowers was so impressed with the talent in this group of young men, especially in light of the obstacles they have faced and continue to face, that their story was used in FIRST promotional publications. This is a photo of Alex, Dr. Flowers and three of the team members, taken during the FRC regional in Salt Lake City. Hopefully, with Alex’s help and continued mentoring, you will see some of these young men applying for the EnergySoltuions scholarship in the future!
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This is so amazing to see what people that have recieved the scholarships and what they have done with the rest of their lives relating to sciene.