RENTON—High school seniors and new graduates from across Washington state were honored Friday, June 6, at STEM Signing Day, hosted by Boeing in collaboration with the Seattle Seahawks and Partnership for Learning. Held at the National Football League’s Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton, the annual celebration recognized students committed to pursuing post-secondary education and credentials in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields.
Graduating with a bachelor of science in Engineering Physics from the Lenoir-Rhyne University, Dereke Young, a Wide Receiver for the Seattle Seahawks, shared advice to the students he would have told his younger self prior to entering college:
“You have to put in time and effort in both in order to succeed. My advice to you guys would be to do that, and that takes a lot of discipline. Like I said, you’re going to be on your own. You’re not going to have mommy or daddy by your side, but use the things that they taught you growing up because they groomed you for this next step that you’re about to take in life,” Young said.
Modeled after signing days for college athletes, STEM Signing Day featured students signing letters of intent to enroll in STEM-related programs at colleges, universities, or technical schools. The event drew parents, community leaders, educators, elected officials, and business representatives who gathered to commend the students’ dedication and encourage their pursuit of careers driving innovation and economic growth in Washington and beyond.
“These students represent the incredible promise of the next generation of STEM professionals,” said Gina Breukelman, Senior Manager, Northwest Region, Boeing Global Engagement. “They’ve worked hard to discover their interests and develop their skills. We’re proud to support their continued growth and look forward to the impact they will make in our communities and across industries.”
The 50 students honored, plan to pursue an array of STEM disciplines, including aerospace engineering, computer engineering, neuroscience, nursing, microbiology, symbolic systems and more, at colleges and universities including University of Washington, Washington State University, Sanford, and California Institute of Technology.
Henry M. Jackson High School senior Shreya Karthik, one of six Snohomish County students participating in STEM Signing Day, will pursue a career in medicine beginning this fall at Brown University with degrees in Neuroscience and Environmental Science. Neuroscience is the study of the body’s nervous system—the body’s communication and control network, responsible for coordinating and regulating nearly all bodily functions, from movement and sensation to cognition and emotion.
“I think that my story with neuroscience really started with my dad’s fight against encephalitis,” Karthik said. “He was diagnosed with severe encephalitis, and it was just like a really turbulent time for my family. And being able to see the doctors work through that, feeling their care and their compassion, and how that uplifted my family, I wanted to give that to other people… especially working with neurodivergent youth.”
Karthik volunteers in the stroke department of a local hospital and at a camp for neurodivergent youth. Her favorite dessert is fried ice cream and enjoyed reading the book by Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner.
Her mother, Vinodhini, a civil engineer by trade, and father, Selvakumar, an Engineering Manager at Microsoft, both shared that Shreya always displayed empathy and compassion towards others.
“Even from childhood she was very fixed on medicine,” her mother Vinodhini told the Lynnwood Times. “We were actually scared because we are like family of engineers and we didn’t know this route, especially in the US because we both studied in India; so, we were worried, but she figured it out.”
Avery Wolf and Shyla Weeks, both Snohomish High School students, this fall will be attending the University of Washington and Central Washington University respectively.
Weeks, decided to pursue a Biophysics STEM path after learning about biomedical research using venom-derived antibodies to identify and target cancer cells.
“I’m a big science girl,” Weeks told the Lynnwood Times. “I really like anything math and science. It just clicks with my brain.”
Outside of academics, Weeks is a varsity wrestler—current team captain—and is part of her school’s theater club—she also enjoys performing in a community theater.
“She’s a blessing, always an adventure, a surprise,” Shyla’s mom Molly shared. “She always comes up with something new, which is fun.”
Wolf, who is pursuing an Earth and Space Sciences STEM path is currently enrolled in the Ocean Research College Academy (ORCA) program at Everett Community College.
Wolf is also in the theater club with Weeks at Snohomish High School as its public relations officer. She is an avid reader of scientific journals and loves learning about other people’s life stories through reading biographies.
“She’s amazing,” Avery’s mom Adrienne said. “She’s just creative and intelligent and fun to be around.”
Avery’s mom, a current preschool teacher, is a strong believer in early childhood learning and stressed the importance of playtime in a child’s development, especially as it pertains to STEM career paths.
“We need to let them be imaginative, creative, innovative, solve their own problems so that they become these stronger students when they need to be,” Adrienne added.
All three Snohomish County students attending STEM Sign Day appreciated their teachers and spoke positively of their respective high schools. Other Snohomish County students recognized were:
Boeing has supported STEM Signing Day in Washington since its inception in 2017, recognizing students who are committed to building the skills and knowledge needed to power the future. The company created STEM Signing Day because innovation and problem solving, key STEM skills Breukelman said, are critically important to keeping Puget Sound a leading global aerospace and technology hub.
“Today you are not just making a decision picking a college or major, you are making a choice,” Doug Ackerman, Vice President of Quality for Boeing Commercial Airplanes told students Friday. “You’re choosing to solve problems. You’re choosing to solve problems that matter. You’re choosing to contribute to human knowledge. You’re choosing to build a future not just for yourselves but for other people as well. And that is an honorable path to pursue.”
His words of wisdom to early-career STEM students were to stay relentlessly and passionately curious, be brave and stick by what you believe in, and keep showing up to find the next problem to solve.
The Renton School District, in King County, partners with Boeing on its pre-employment training program and programs like the Renton Promise, which offers full tuition and fee coverage for Renton Technical College for the first two years for all Renton School graduates.
“We’re lucky to have such strong partners in Boeing and the Seahawks, who support the growth and well-being of our young people through innovative programs like today’s event,” Armando Pavone, Mayor of the city of Renton said.
Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus, quipped that she started her STEM career path in accounting with the hopes of making “good money.”
“I don’t know if they [her teachers] were accurate in the really making really good money, but it was a good living,” Mayor Backus said. “I worked for the Boeing Company for 25 years in finance; so, I am really proud of the time that I was at Boeing and in fact, the Boeing Company helped pay for my last two years of my college career.”
Snohomish County is home to the largest concentration of aerospace jobs in the western United States, anchored by Boeing’s Everett facility and a skilled manufacturing workforce. The county offers a strong value proposition for companies focused on innovation, sustainability and supply chain such as space station manufacturer Gravitics, Everett-based transportation electrification company MagniX, quantum computing company ionQ, fusion research companies Helion Energy and Zap Energy, Everett-based Off Planet Research (OPR), Marysville’s green-maritime manufacturer Echandia, and the new Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Research and Development Center at Paine Field.
Rep. Alex Ybarra (R-Quincy) shared the unorthodox career path to achieving one’s goals from not learning to speak and write English until High School which led to a bachelor of science degree in Mathematics and then a Master of Business Administration, to becoming a rocket scientist then an engineering analyst doing mathematics and statistics alongside being a state legislator.
“Everybody has a different route, including every one of these students in this room,” Rep. Ybarra said. “You can’t write your own rules on how you get there, but when you get there, it’s fabulous. It’s great. I mean, I’m so glad to be a STEM major.”
Washington was ranked fifth overall for most innovative in an assessment by WalletHub released in March 2025 that included criteria such as the share of STEM professionals, projected STEM jobs, and student scores on Advanced Placement exams. WalletHub also ranked Washington as the third strongest state economy in the country in 2024 with criteria that included the number of exports per capita and startup activity.
Major employers such as Boeing, Microsoft, Costco, Amazon, and Electroimpact still call Washington state home. Boeing was founded in a shipyard on Seattle’s Duwamish River in 1916, launching the state’s reputation for STEM careers in addition to lumber, fishing, and agriculture industries.
According to the Washington State Department of Commerce, aerospace is the state’s top export; in 2024, almost $18 billion of the state’s nearly $45 billion in exported commodities was related to aircraft that year.
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