The Class of 2022 will say farewell to a high school career that included nearly two years under the cloud of a global pandemic. While COVID-19 may have marred some of their high school experience, this class has grit and they have made it to the finish line. As members of the graduating class prepare to move on to the next chapter in their lives, the Observer-Dispatch sat down with several seniors across the Mohawk Valley. They offered advice for their fellow students, shared their college and career goals and more. Congratulations to the Class of 2022.
Ask Naya Leslie about stem cells, nanobots, bioprinting or any number of subjects and you will get a fast-paced, energized lesson.
Someone jokes about cloning, and she explains its common misconceptions. Her hands spin in the air as she mimes how nanites could cut out tumors and save lives. Don’t get her started on the biomechanical fallacies of the “Terminator” franchise, she says.
The 17-year-old Oriskany Falls resident will graduate from Waterville Jr./Sr. High School, after which she’ll study bioengineering at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. It’s a major that perfectly weaves together her passion for robotics and biology, she says.
But her teachers and mentors say what’s most significant is how she’s applied her infectious enthusiasm for science and technology.
‘She has a natural knack for energizing the students’
Leslie has been a member of the Junior Frontiers of the Mohawk Valley since her sophomore year of high school. Her father and brother were Frontiers and Junior Frontiers members respectively before her, but Leslie said she also was drawn to the way she could tailor her volunteer work to fit her interests. For her, that’s teaching robotics to other students.
“She’s an amazing teacher,” said U’nice Elliott-Jefferson, president of the Mohawk Valley Frontiers and co-director of the Junior Frontiers. “She has a natural knack for energizing the students.”
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Leslie has hosted robotics courses for students from grades 8 through 12 in the Junior Frontiers for both the 2019-20 and 2021-22 school years. This year she designed and headed the course herself. Students already have built three robots and are currently programming them in preparation for a mock robotics tournament amongst one another, she said.
“I’m excited to have them compete against each other,” she said. “I’m excited to see it.”
In addition to other volunteer work with the Junior Frontiers and serving as vice president this year, as well as a variety of other extracurriculars, she also has competed in the First Tech Challenge robotics tournament for the last three-and-a-half years. At times, she finds herself up at 2 a.m. programming a robot, or looking up robotics curriculum in her own classes.
How does she manage her schedule?
“Lots of caffeine and very little sleep,” she says.
Despite the lack of sleep, her chorus teacher Jessica Lotyczewski has watched her brim with energy over the past six years, whether it’s offering other students help in the hallway or explaining with enthusiasm the subject of robotics.
“You hope to learn from her every day,” she said.
For her future career, Leslie is hoping to focus her research in school on tissue engineering.
“And I also want to work with nanites and the immune system,” she said. “I know and am a person with an autoimmune disease, so I want to help people not deal with that.”
For now, she’s enjoying the end of the school year and time spent with her friends.
Lotyczewski is certain there will be plenty of time in the future for Leslie to change the world.
“She is unstoppable,” she said. “You can probably tell, she’s a force to be reckoned with.”
H. Rose Schneider covers public safety, breaking and trending news for the Observer-Dispatch. Email Rose at hschneider@gannett.com.
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