COPLEY, Ohio — An Ohio student was named one of the two winners in a national STEM competition.
What You Need To Know
- An Ohio student constructed a 3D pin design for a national STEM competition and won
- The winning designs are meant to honor veterans
- Harrison Rothschild shares his inspiration for the pin and how his great-uncles played a role in it
- Rothschild’s pin will be given to veterans in Columbus at a special Memorial Day event
The challenge asked 4th through 12th grade students across the country to design a 3D pin that gives thanks to our veterans. The judges ranked designs based on creativity, but only the winning designs will get shared with veterans.
Harrison Rothschild from Copley created one of the winning designs.
“It was around 50 hours of work to do this thing,” said Rothschild. “There’s a lot of minute details I had to work out. I had to draw out like a map of North and South America on it.”
The 11th grader is constructing the 3D pin design for the “We (Heart) Veterans Pin Design” Challenge.
When designing it, Rothschild fused symbols of military branches on the pin and thinks that’s why his pin stood out.
“I have the star from the army’s new symbol they’ve been using,” said Rothschild. “I have the anchor from the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard. The globe from the Marines. I have lightning bolts from the airfare and the space force.”
The challenge itself was enough to intrigue Rothschild to design the pin, but doing it to honor veterans meant more.
“I have a lot of family members who were in the military,” said Rothschild.
Both his great-uncles, Hip and Nim Wong, fought in the 50s. Hip served during the Korean War in Germany and Nim was just after in South Korea.
While Rothschild hasn’t been in their shoes, he’s hoping his pin can at least share a nice sentiment.
“They’re brave. They put their lives on the line for the country, and I don’t think we, as a country, give enough recognition for that a lot of the time. I hope this pin might make them feel a little more recognized for that.”
Harrison Rothschild will hand out his 3D-printed pins to veterans in Columbus at a special Memorial Day event at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum.
