Annual Dinner Honorees | YSEA Science Fair Award
The Yale Science and Engineering Association, YSEA, lends a hand with the national effort to attract secondary school students into the science and engineering pipeline
In 2006, YSEA medals and certificates were given to high school Science Fair winners in 44 states in the U.S. and in Brazil, Canada, China, Italy, Nigeria, Romania, and Russia, 241 awards in all. "We are just amazed at how eager students and teachers are for the 'Yale award'," says Steven E. Lasewicz Jr. '60 E, who counts this initiative as the most successful project of his term as YSEA president.
The YSEA Award is given to an 11th grade student for the most outstanding exhibit at a state or regional high school Science Fair in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or Chemistry. The Award consists of the YSEA medal and a formal certificate. Each winner also receives a brochure about undergraduate studies in Engineering at Yale. The list of winners is forwarded to the Yale Admissions Office.
In the future, YSEA plans to facilitate interaction between Yale alumni/ae and YSEA Award winners, so that scientifically-inclined high school students can receive information about studying at Yale from people who have been students at Yale themselves.
YSEA also intends to identify Yale alumni/ae who are qualified to serve as judges at state and regional Science Fairs and will be working closely with Yale Clubs around the country to ensure that Yale alumni/ae are on hand to present the YSEA Award to the winners. In 2004, a number of Yale alumni served as judges at a Connecticut Science Fair through a YSEA solicitation, and we plan to expand this program in coming years.
Since YSEA presented its first award at the Connecticut Science Fair in 1989, the initiative has steadily included ever more state and regional Science Fairs, and for the first time in 2002, International Science Fairs. YSEA now reaches virtually every state and regional high school Science Fair in the U.S. and has begun to expand into foreign countries.
The purpose of the YSEA Award:
The YSEA Award seeks to inform the most active high school science teachers and the
most enthusiastic high school science students that Yale University is an outstanding
educator in the sciences and engineering.
Information about the award is distributed by way of the Science Service, a non-profit organization based in Washington D.C. Science Service coordinates the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, ISEF
The history of the YSEA Award:
The YSEA Award initiative was conceived and crystallized by members of the YSEA Board
in 1989, building on a seed idea from Elona Vaisnys '66 Ph.D., editor and webmaster for
Yale Engineering. Steven Lasewicz developed the project and grew it as the Coordinator for
the YSEA Awards until 2000, at which time he passed the baton to YSEA Vice President Elie K.
Track '88 Ph.D. Lasewicz continues to maintain a keen interest in the initiative he nurtured
into the major project of the YSEA, and he and Track intend eventually to make the YSEA Award
one of the coveted awards at the annual International Science and Engineering Fair, where
outstanding high school students from the U.S. and other countries compete for top laurels
for scientific and engineering insight and ingenuity.
Contact Elie K. Track '88 Ph.D, Coordinator of the YSEA Award.