The Indian Hill School District is pleased to announce that for the third consecutive year Project Lead The Way (PLTW) has recognized Indian Hill High School as a “PLTW Distinguished School” for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning. Indian Hill High School is one of only 191 high school programs nationally to receive this distinction for the 2021-2022 school year.
“For the Indian Hill School District, this is about creating unparalleled opportunities for our students through a comprehensive engineering program that will inspire passion for STEM; we are proud to offer our nationally recognized program at Indian Hill High School in partnership with Great Oaks,” said Indian Hill School District CEO/Superintendent Kirk Koennecke. “We celebrate this moment of achievement, and we continue to strive for ways to grow our STEM learning each year not only at Indian Hill High School but also throughout our District.”
This is the second major accolade from PLTW this school year; educator Myrtis Smith earned national recognition as a PLTW Outstanding Teacher of the Year for 2021-2022. Smith was one of only 79 PLTW teachers across the U.S. to be recognized.
“This recognition is a testament to the power of strong partnerships,” said Smith. “Great Oaks, PLTW, and Indian Hill have joined together to create this opportunity for the students. This alliance is further strengthened by the active involvement of the parents and industry partners. We have parents who volunteer their time so the students can do more activities, companies that provide donations, and business professionals who have mentored our students. What we have here is a perfect example of the saying it takes a village, and I am excited to be a part of it.”
Photo caption: Indian Hill High School has several members of the Class of 2022 who took engineering classes all four years while in high school. Each student plans to continue their study of engineering at colleges including MIT, Columbia, and The Ohio State University. Pictured (L to R): Kathy Zhao, Sophia Liu, Stephen Tranter, Luke Folke, Ethan Spurrier, and Grayden Benedic