Cohort Member Leighton Redditt

Leighton Redditt is a senior at George C. Marshall High School. Leighton started participating in the STEM Impressionists Program (SIP) in 2017 when he joined the program’s VEX robotics team in order to explore his interests in the field of robotics and engineering.

The VEX team opportunity gave Mr. Redditt the opportunity to lead the engineering team that inevitably built multiple robots in addition to being part of the team that won multiple regional VEX awards and was acknowledged with a team “Energy” award at the VEX Virginia state robotics competition. Inspired by his experience he extended his skills by attending the team’s field trip to VEX Words, where he was a competition volunteer, a summer VEX training session, and a VEX judging training session.

Part of SIP’s mission is to support underrepresented minorities in STEM. Leighton has taken the concept of “paying it forward” by volunteering to teach younger generations the power of robotics through VEX IQ, creating lesson plans that support children in getting hands-on experience with raw engineering and STEM fundamentals, and jumping at the chance to teach at events like George Mason’s Inaugural Global Scholars Program (GSSP).

Mr. Redditt is populating his last year in high school with math and technology classes that will prepare him for the rigors of college as an aspiring roboticist. He is excited when he reads about breakthroughs in the use of robotics like robotic servers in restaurants or construction sites. His long-term goal is to collaborate with the likes of NASA engineers and work on projects like robots exploring Saturn himself.