By Torin Record-Sand
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

West Seattle is not only a place that established members of the local tech industry call home, it’s also a place for budding and exceptional upcoming talent in STEM. This week, we sat down to check in with members of the Rocketry Club at West Seattle High School.

The club offers a variety of opportunities for students to get hands-on experience in applying STEM to real-world production. It combines elements of engineering, programming, building, self-finance, and outreach. “In a way, it’s really like a startup, with the variety of roles you need to take on,” they said when we spoke to a few of them about what it means to have access to this opportunity.

“Rocketry is an adventure. Both in the literal sense, driving out to Redmond on the weekends to launch, and the intellectual sense – we are constantly testing new ideas, constantly writing new features in the code to improve the efficacy of our control system, making many mistakes but importantly learning from said mistakes. The rollercoaster of success and ‘occasional’ failure, and the amount of exploring involved in this process, alongside the team camaraderie render rocketry the most exciting and influential extracurricular I have had the privilege of participating in during my time in high school.” said Aidan Busby.

“Rocketry is the foundation for my future. The club and competition have taught me the tools of patience, ingenuity, and perseverance; essential skills for my plans in entrepreneurship and engineering. Without rocketry, I would not have been able to push my limits and change the standards within WSHS.” said Nathan Vuong.

Both of them are aiming to continue studying STEM in university after graduating this year, looking at programs in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and aerospace/mechanical engineering.

This year, the club is also looking at opportunities to do local community outreach, something new for them. They’ll be looking to share and talk about their work, as well as provide a small demonstration of their rocket, to students at Genesee Hill Elementary later this month at the school’s STEM Night. They’re also looking for similar opportunities to engage other schools in the area, although nothing is finalized yet.

The club is also working on this year’s entry for the American Rocketry Challenge. This year’s challenge is to design a model rocket that will launch 750 feet in the air while carrying a single raw egg, and return to the ground within around 39 seconds with the egg completely intact.

(Parts of the airbrake for this year’s competition rocket)

The club needs around $1,500 for their current project, much of which will go toward allowing them to finish their model so they can compete in this year’s challenge.

As a student-led group, they are dependent almost entirely on self-finance for their projects. “Last year, in order to produce a rocket for competition, we had to spend almost $2,100 from our own projects to get it done.” the club said. They shared that one member of the club had even contributed almost $500 to the cause. And, they noted, the need for fundraising has been growing due to ongoing national events. “Electronics and parts shipping is up around 1.5 to 2 times this year due to tariffs and inflation. It hits a lot of our parts providers, some who are very small hobbyists selling things such as miniature parachutes practically out of their garage.” they said.

If you feel inclined, you can donate to the club via their page here – and the club says it’s a benefit for the wider community: “Contributing to our club is a good opportunity to lower the wealth gap in education, as well as help further STEM education and provide us with means to go and do further community outreach.”