Oklahoma’s First

EAST at Northeast Tech - Claremore made history this year as the first Oklahoma-based program to capture the Founder’s Award, just one year after winning the Cornerstone Award for Community and Collaboration.

This year, the 27 EAST students in the program focused on maintaining their momentum and on completing sophisticated projects for their community partners.

Senior Shelby Scott has been working on a 90-second animation to promote a special program by the Volunteers for Youth, a community organization that provides diverse, quality programs for young people.

“When I first joined EAST, I knew I wanted to do something in animation, but the problem was that I had no idea how to animate,” Shelby said. “I spent much of my first year learning techniques and how to use new programs, and at the end of the year, I had only finished 27 seconds of the project.”

After a year of learning how to animate and receiving a certification for her abilities in Adobe Animate, Shelby decided to start from scratch at the beginning of this year — with completely different software.

“At the beginning of the year, I looked over my current animation and made a decision that would shock my past self — I decided to scrap the entire animation and began using Blender,” Shelby said. “This time though, I had knowledge and practice. I knew

I wanted an end product that my client and others could enjoy.”

With her new vision and much stronger skillset, she’s made incredible progress and is confident that her clients will be satisfied with the end result.

Another long-term project the program has been working on is their work with the Rogers State University Nature Reserve, where several students began mapping out the area to observe the depth and makeup of water bodies in the area, as well as plant health.

“By flying a drone and taking pictures in a certain pattern around the area, we were able to collect information,” said Josh Martin, a senior EAST student at Northeast Tech - Claremore. “Our hope is by flying the same area again next year, we can track the growth of invasive species and our community partner can use that information to prevent its spread.”

One of the core foundations of the program is its work with creating vinyl graphics and installing them for community partners around the region. The EAST students work with several schools and local businesses to ensure privacy for those inside while creating an aesthetic appeal from the outside.

“We are known for our work in making vinyl, and we’ve worked with several schools because they want to make their schools look good, but also use it for security purposes,” Cathryn said. Last year, 14 of the 23 EAST students in the program successfully earned certifications from Adobe, Google IT support and Apple Swift development. One student earned his drone pilot certification from the Federal Aviation Administration.

“Getting these certifications really puts us ahead of the curve,” said Cathryn Lewis, a first-year EAST student at Northeast TechClaremore. “Having a professional certification tells everyone that we know what we are doing and that we can get jobs done.”

Cambry Edwards

Faith Thompson

Madison Bennett

Cathryn Lewis

Zackery Standlee

Alexis Keesler

Haylea Benedict

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