May 31. We frequently hear about the many accomplishments of students attending Hough High in Cornelius. Here’s more proof positive:

Hough’s STEM team (The North Carolina Varsity Esports & STEM League ) is one of just 21 teams statewide competing Saturday in Raleigh for their state championship.

There are 2 students that qualified from William Amos Hough High School: Xavier Karatz, a rising senior, and Jaswanth Sai Deevela, a rising sophomore.

Hough High School | Photo by Jason Benavides

Background

STEM is the infusion of two or more of the disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

STEM empowers students to understand complex problems and prepares our next generation of innovators.

More than 200 students from 74 high schools fielded a Varsity STEM Team several months ago and entered into competition for the regular season, competing against each other in topics including Agriculture (AgTech), Entrepreneurship, Healthcare (HealthTech), and Manufacturing (ManufacTech).

Through the regular season competition, and initial playoff rounds taking place in several locations across the state the competition has been narrowed down to the final 21 High Schools, including Hough.

They will all be traveling to the Raleigh Convention Center this Saturday to compete in Varsity STEM.

In addition to various prizes, the top school will win a state of the art Esports & Learning Lab built in and for their school.

In 2018, Hough High School’s “Iditarod Motorsports” won first place in the Ten80 STEM League National Finals at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. The hometown team, which competed against 22 other high school teams from across the country and three teams from China, also took first place in Racing Events and second place in both Rover and Graphic Design

Watch for an update on Hough’s STEM team next week.