Montagne

Sophomore gets accepted to the Honeywell Leadership Challenge Academy

Sophomore Thomas Montagne’s father, an engineer at Honeywell learned that

one of his colleague’s daughters had attended a prestigious STEM camp offered by

Honeywell. He then told his son to apply.

“This interested me because I want to become an engineer like my

parents,” Montagne said. “I would also like to meet people with the same interests as

me.”

The Honeywell Leadership Challenge Academy provides high school students

with opportunities to build upon their leadership skills. It offers challenges in science,

technology, engineering and mathematics as well as college credit. Participants

collaborate with experts in these fields and get to work with cutting-edge technology as

well.

“I will participate in real life astronaut training, simulated jet fighter pilot

training, a mini biotech camp,” Montagne said.

The academy, however, is very selective- only 254 students worldwide are chosen

to participate in 2013. Along with two essay questions, applicants must show outstanding

academic records as well as community service hours. Parents also must be full-time

Honeywell employees.

“The hardest obstacle was writing the essays,” Montagne said. “They asked me

what I wanted to learn and about my goals, so I wrote about how [I want to] become a

better leader and about my goal to become an engineer.”

He was selected as of the small few that will participate in the program in March

at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center (USSRC) in Huntsville, Alabama. This year, the elite

academy selected students from thirty countries and twenty-six U.S states.

“I’m looking forward to learning about engineering and space,” Montagne said.

“My only expectations are that I learn a lot, make new friends and have fun. I expect [to

see that] everyone there is as excited as I am to learn new things about science.”