Mountlake Terrace High School junior Collin Rhodes has been selected to be one of 160 students to participate in a Washington Aerospace Scholars (WAS) program this summer at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

WAS is a competitive educational program designed to connect high school juniors with educational and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) through independent learning, hands-on interaction, professional guidance and site-based tours.

The 2014 WAS Summer Residency program attracted 308 student applications last November. To qualify for the residency program each student spent five months studying a University of Washington and NASA-designed online curriculum; the 160 students to participate this summer were selected based upon their academic performance in these lessons.

During the Summer Residency program, Rhodes and the other participating students will collaborate to design a human mission to Mars with guidance from professional engineers, scientists, university students and certified educations. In addition, students will compete in hands-on engineering challenges, received briefings from experts in aerospace and engineering fields, and participate in behind-the-scenes tours, including the Boeing Commercial Airplane assembly plant and the engineering laboratories at the University of Washington.

This is the eighth year WAS has offered the summer residency program, with more than 1,000 students from more than 300 different public, private and home schools across the state have participated in previous summers. More than 70% of summer residency alumni reported that they are pursuing a college degree in the STEM field.

WAS will be accepting applications from students and teachers in early September for the 2014-2015 residency program cycle; click www.museumofflight.org/was to download an application. WAS participants must be high school juniors, United States citizens and Washington State residents. Teachers must be currently practicing, Washington State certified educators, and must also be U.S. citizens. Deadline for applications is November 7, 2014.