Student Spotlight: Caven Stanley

It’s time for spotlight on another amazing and remarkable student that we have here at the Dayton Regional STEM School. Caven Stanley, an eighth grader, has attended STEM for three years. Starting this year Caven has chosen to serve the school community by volunteering his time as a student ambassador.

Caven started out doing in school tours for adult visitors to the school. Working alongside one other student, Caven took groups of between five and ten around the school and talked to them about the recycling program, project based learning, and the amazing qualities of our teachers. Since then Caven has continued to assist in giving over five more school tours, and has even moved on to host students on the designated STEM shadowing days.

Caven said that he has had a lot of fun helping new students get a feel for the culture at our school. His favorite part was being able to tell them about the teaching style of the school itself. For Caven, his old school was less than ideal and because of that he has found it rewarding to teach others about his experiences at DRSS to help draw them in.

When asked about the students that he had hosted Caven said,” Most were awesome! Some were a little demanding, but I just talked with them to figure out what their interests were, to see if I could relate at all.”

Right now, Caven is busy finding possible job shadowing sites as part of an eighth grade graduation requirement. Caven is interested in a career in agriculture or landscaping, so he has been busy looking up places to get experience in that area, and making phone calls to check availabilities. Caven said from a young age he has always had a love and appreciation for farm machinery and landscaping. If Caven can find his dream job shadowing site he said it would involve industrial or mechanized landscaping. He’d like to be able to work around machinery but so far has not been able to secure a place like that on account of his age.

Caven told me that he thinks job shadowing is a really useful activity, because it will allow him get a taste of the fields that he is interested in. He says he looks forward to getting inside information from professionals in his field about what colleges to look into, and hints for success in their career.

We look forward to Caven’s help as a tour guide and shadow day host many more times in the rest of his STEM school career and wish him luck as he continues his search for a job shadow site. With his passion for volunteering and interest in agricultural science, Caven Stanley is another great example of the many bright and curious young minds at the Dayton regional STEM school.