This year, junior Elizabeth Cho has been awarded as a 2017 National Honorable Mention recipient of the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) Award for Aspirations in Computing. Cho is the First national NCWIT recipient that the high school has ever had.

The NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award is for high school girls with a strong interest in computing, technology, and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and students have been applying for this award since 2013.

“The way that it works is that it basically puts young women in touch with other young women who have interest in computing fields and also with professional women who are currently working in computing and IT fields. The best thing about it is that it
is an amazing networking opportunity and not something that high school students would have access to,“ science teacher Tim Barron said.

For the past two years, Farmington has had the most student recipients within the state, however, no previous participants were honored at the national level.

“I was surprised that I got the National Honorable Mention award. In general, it’s difficult to get to the national level, so I didn’t expect to make it to that level,” Cho said.

For this award, there are 50 national winners and 350 national honorable mentions as well as different state recipients.

“I haven’t worked with Elizabeth very much, but from what I have seen, she is very talented at what she does. She really deserves this honor,” senior Kirsten Hart said.

Cho plans to take her knowledge and aspirations she has with computers with her beyond her high school career. She is currently planning on majoring in biomedical engineering or computer science in college.

As she is currently still a junior, she has the opportunity to apply once again during her senior year to try and be one of 50 women to obtain the National Winner Award.