The Wheatley School in the East Williston School District had 8th-grade students who won the top three recognitions in the South Asian American Women’s Alliance writing competition: 1st place: Ammar Arif, 2nd place: Olivia Zeng, and 3rd place Kyle Lau.

The South Asian American Women’s Alliance is a nonprofit organization that seeks to encourage and promote leadership and innovation among students in STEM fields to help build tomorrow’s workforce in the community.

SAAWA sponsors various research competitions, including an essay writing competition. This year, the essay prompt for Middle and High School students was “Is artificial intelligence a threat to human job security at the present or in the future?”

Students in the Intro to STEM and Independent STEM Research courses were encouraged to write essays based on their own experiences and various articles they had read.