At Saint Thomas Academy, we often say that we prepare young men for lives of leadership and service. Sometimes, that leadership takes place on the ground—and sometimes, it orbits the Earth.

We are thrilled to announce that a team of five STA juniors has been named a winner in the 5th Annual NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge. Out of thousands of entries nationwide, our Cadets are among just 60 teams selected to represent the "bright minds of today" in a contest that pushes the absolute boundaries of technology, science, and space exploration.

While many students spend their summer at the lake, Gabriel Frommelt '27, Landon Wright '27, Logan Fotsch '27, William O’Shaughnessy '27, and Finnegan Ganje '27 will be preparing for a NASA-sponsored flight.

The team is currently engineering a sophisticated science experiment titled “Wave Patterns in Three Dimensions Stimulated with a Chladni Plate.” Their goal? To see how sound vibrations shape matter in a microgravity environment.

This isn’t just a classroom project. This summer, their experiment will be loaded onto a Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceship. As the craft reaches the edge of space, our students’ work will undergo three minutes of microgravity, collecting vital data that could advance NASA's own research into electricity, magnetism, and fluid behavior.

This achievement is a testament to the "Once-in-a-Lifetime" culture we cultivate at the Academy. Through our Innovation Center, we provide the resources—and more importantly, the mentorship—that allow boys to transition from consumers of technology to the creators of it.

"They will be guided by advisors as they learn about design, programming, and microprocessing in a hands-on experiment and then actually test their concept aboard a suborbital spaceship. It’s incredible," says Mark Westlake, Director of the Innovation Center.

At Saint Thomas Academy, "hands-on learning" means working with NASA. It means receiving $1,500 in research grants, professional flight boxes, and technical support from world-class engineers.

We don't just teach science; we give our students a assigned spot on a spacecraft to prove their hypotheses. We are building the next generation of the American workforce—men who are technically skilled, intellectually curious, and ready to take our country forward.