PARADISE VALLEY, AZ — The CREST building at Paradise Valley High School is a school within a school.
“When I came here, I found a passion for all of the building, design process, and everything that goes along with engineering,” Alex Podborny, a senior in the CREST program said.
CREST stands for the Center for Research in Engineering, Science, and Technology. It’s a four-year honors STEM program where students focus on bioscience, computer science, or engineering.
After graduating, most head to colleges across the country and often receive big scholarships. Many get internships while they are still in high school.
“Students benefit a lot through the program, because it is quite rigorous,” Reeni Samuel, a teacher in the CREST program said. “They’re exposed to the industry standard at a very young age, they do get an edge.”
For Podborny, his passion for engineering took him beyond the CREST building, and into the robotics room at Paradise Valley High School. Inside the classroom is heavy machinery, and even a storage closet with different robotics parts.
Podborny is a member of Team Paradise, a robotics team with many trophies on display in the case across the hall.
“You have to buy the parts, buy the materials, then you have to manufacture it,” Podborny said. “You have to use the chop saw, table saw, then figure out the electrical component to make all the pieces move.”
The team this year is coming off of a successful season, and lessons learned for Podborny this year will carry him into the future.
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“This has given me the opportunity to see other parts of engineering that I haven’t been able to see,” Podborny said. “This has been my place for three years now, I have enjoyed every moment I have been in here, and I wish I could spend more time here, but I have to go to college.”
As for that future, this Fall he is heading to the University of Arizona to pursue a degree in engineering.
“I’m hoping to work for either Raytheon or NASA,” he said.
In Arizona, with major investments from tech and semiconductor manufacturing, the engineering sector is expected to grow. Programs like CREST aren’t just preparing students for college, they’re preparing them to lead.
“Moving onward, to work with robots, robot manufacturing, I want to make it easier for people to complete certain tasks,” Podborny said. “I don’t want to replace the work force, I think we will need more people in it, working with the robots and new AI technologies.”
