Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Daxter Irons and Ada Gage, students at Warren Area Elementary Center, pictured with Community Foundation of Warren County Executive Director Robert Kaemmerer, will be going to the week-long National Youth Leadership Forum: Pathways to STEM program this summer in Pittsburgh, with scholarship dollars from the Community Foundation’s Romayne Barret Learning Enrichment Fund.

Two Warren County students will be going to the National Youth Leadership Forum: Pathways to STEM thanks to high achievement and a grant from the Community Foundation of Warren County’s Romayne Barret Learning Enrichment Fund.

Ada Gage, a fourth-grader, and Daxter Irons, a third-grader, are both students at Warren Area Elementary Center.

They will be among the “bright, forward-thinking elementary students” attending the week-long forum and learning by doing during hands-on simulations and workshops involving medicine, engineering, crime scene investigations, and engineering/robotics,” according to the Community Foundation.

They are looking forward to meeting and working with students of similar interests.

The students were nominated for the scholarship by Gifted Support and Enrichment Teacher Rebecca Downey.

After that, they had to apply – including an essay on why they wanted to attend.

“It’s going to be fun,” Irons said. “We’re going to do a dissection. I’m excited for coding or anything that has to do with science or technology.”

Gage is particularly interested in a look into forensic science and “building robots,” she said. “It’s going to definitely be fun.”

The fund was established by Romayne Barret in 2005 with the mission of “enriching and expanding educational opportunities for gifted and high-achieving students in Warren County,” Community Foundation Executive Director Robert Kaemmerer said.