Academics

Academic Achievements

• Columbia College Junior Book Award
  • Colleges present the awards each year across the country to 11th-grade students in recognition of their outstanding academic accomplishments, dedication to learning, leadership, school involvement and community service. Each award recipient receives a book that is connected to the college in some way, often written by a professor or alumnus. Read more here
• Target Twist EPIC Award
  • The awards recognize and honor high school girls from the Twin Cities for their dedication to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and for demonstrating engagement, passion, innovation, and curiosity within these fields. Learn more here.
• NCWIT Aspiration Rising Star Award
  • Aspirations in Computing Award: Rising Star distinction from the Minnesota State IT Center of Excellence. The awards honor young women for their computing-related achievements and interests, and are intended to encourage the next generation of women in the state’s computer and technology industry. Learn more here.
• NCWIT Aspiration State Award
  • Aspirations in Computing Award State Winner from the Minnesota State IT Center of Excellence. The awards honor young women for their significant computing-related achievements and interests. They also have a large aptitude to succeed in computing Learn More Here
• NCWIT Aspiration National Award
  • Learn More Here Alexis was also selected to give a speech at the award ceremony. Watch it here.

• AP Scholar with Distinction
  • Granted to students who receive an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams. Alexis Bunnell’s Average is 4.3.

Work as a Woman in STEM

Alexis Bunnell is a passionate and change inciting young woman in STEM. She has pushed the barriers within her school and community, earning respect from her peers and teachers as well as a numerous amount of recognitions.

As a sophomore, Alexis’ passion for scientific research was recognized at the Twin Cities Regional Science Fair where her project on the effect of social media usage by teens on their sleep and academics was selected to advance to State level competition. One of the most impressive things about Alexis’ project was her learning how to complete a chi square analysis to determine the statistical significance of her data. Her project and paper on teen social media addiction won the Behavioral American Psychological Association Award and advanced further into the state competition with. Read her paper here.

She also participated in the American Heart Associations Advancing the Sciences event with the Women in STEM club, to help raise STEM funds for our school. She also took a lead role in organizing and participating in this STEM competition.

She won the National Center for Women in Information Technology Aspiration Rising Star Award. Rising Stars show aptitude to succeed in computer science. She was one of the few sophomores to receive this distinction. Learn more here.

As a junior, in her research writing course, she chose to research how schools could close the gender gap in STEM programs. Alexis chose a topic that is so important to her as a woman in STEM, and her solution to this problem was unique, creative, and relatively easy to accomplish. When a district administrator heard of her research, they worked with Alexis to actually implement this solution in our own school’s classrooms. This is an incredible example of real-world learning, but it is all due to Alexis’s ability to see education as a means to change her world. Read about her work here.

Alexis participated in the Congressional App Challenge with her twin brother. Together they coded an mental health app with various elements for a users relaxation. Watch Video Here.

She also has attended the University of Minnesota medical camp for Cardiac Surgery (Camp Cardiac) because she is passionate about medicine and wanted to have more experience than what high school had to offer.

She won the reputable Target Twist EPIC Award that recognized a young woman that demonstrates engagement, passion, innovation, and curiosity within STEM fields. Learn more here.

She also earned the National Center for Women in Information Technology Aspiration Regional Affiliate Award for students who have significantly demonstrated interest and aptitude for computing. Learn More Here

As a senior, Alexis has showed commitment to providing feed back to the National Science Foundation as a beta student through her class participation in the AP Computer Science Principles class last year and also created a video to share with all the Marketing, Business, Information Technology instructors in Minnesota this summer.

Alexis Bunnell actively works to encourage more students, especially young girls, to develop a passion for computer science and STEM. She has recruited women at the high school to be part of NCWIT (National Center for Women and Information Technology) and led a group in the Technovation Challenge at her school.

Alexis also combined two of her strongest assets – her organization skill set and deep empathy for others to be a major organizer during the “hour of code” last two years for our entire school district. Hundreds of students and family members participated in this successful event. Alexis also created a summer STEM/CS camp for junior high girls in the school district called “Chick Click” Summer Camp but was put on hold because of the COVID 19 epidemic.