Today is not a day Senqué Little-Poole will soon forget. A 10th grade student at Pittsburgh Science & Technology Academy, Senqué was an honored guest at the 2013 White House Science Fair, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bill Nye, Lavar Burton, Bobak Ferdowsi of NASA, and of course, President Obama.

Senqué earned his place at the White House Science Fair as a result of his project Brain Quest: Cell Tracing with CFSE, a research project to investigate how to cause anti-virus cells to successfully proliferate within the brain, which could cure diseases such as rabies, Alzheimer’s, sclerosis and several forms of cancer.

For the past four consecutive years, Senqué has presented his research at the Pennsylvania Regional Science and Engineering Fair (PRSEF), with topics ranging from toxicology in local water systems to cell growth patterns in the brain. At the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS) Region 7 Science Fair, Senqué has earned 1^st place awards for four consecutive years. His impressive work has earned Senqué sponsorship awards from the United States Navy and UPMC Center for Inclusion.

Alongside Zainab Oni from MOUSE Corps in New York City, Senqué represented the Hive Learning Networks at the White House Science Fair. As the third city to establish a Hive Learning Network, Pittsburgh is  creating new opportunities for teens to explore their interests, create  their own spaces, experiences, and projects, and share what they make  with their peers.

As noted on Hive New York’s blog, the White House Science Fair follows on the President’s Educate to Innovate Campaign.

[blockquote style=”normal”]To help support , President Obama helped kick off this summer’s Maker Party campaign! From the official White House press release announcing new commitments to advance the President’s Educate to Innovate Campaign:

Mozilla and the National Writing Project will lead Maker Party 2013: Learn, Connect, Share, a summer long campaign where teachers, technologists and families across the country will join dozens of partner organizations including the NYC Department of Education, Intel, and DIY.org to help young people embrace the maker spirit and learn career building STEM skills. The campaign will launch on June 15 with a Hive Learning Pop-up, the first of over 1,000 summer learning events planned as part of the Summer of Making and Connecting supported by the MacArthur Foundation.

Go to www.webmaker.org/party to find out more, sign up to hold an event, become a partner, or just join the party![/blockquote]

And if that wasn’t enough, summer excitement, Hive  Pittsburgh will kick of its summer programming in less than two weeks at the Andy Warhol Museum’s Youth Invasion on Friday, May 3rd. As the launch event for Hive Days of Summer, Youth Invasion is the first event in a three month  campaign to help teens to reinvent summer learning by invading museums,  taking over parks, remixing the web, turning libraries inside out,  making their own spaces, and energizing life in their communities.

We’re thrilled to see Senqué recognized for his impressive work. His success illustrates the boundless potential our youth have when they are  supported to pursue their passions and we can’t wait to see what comes next.