Each year, the Prudential Insurance Company of America awards the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards to select students around the country for their accomplishments in community service. Junior Katherine Thomas was recognized as a Distinguished Finalist for the state of Texas. In addition to this award, Thomas was also recognized by President Barack Obama and the President’s Council on Service and Civil Participation.

Thomas’s community service project included working with multiple students from low incomes families in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) to introduce them the field of robotics and technology via a program she created.

“I went to Dell, and they gave me a $3,000 grant to do this work,” Thomas said. “In addition to that, many students from the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) helped me teach the class.”

The grants Thomas received went towards buying robotics kits and various other items that could help in teaching the program. Thomas worked to make the program run effectively and smoothly.

“She went to multiple companies looking for grants for the program,” Paula Thomas, Katherine’s mother, said. “She must have worked over 200 hours on the project as a whole.”

Thomas’ friends and family were very proud of her accomplishments. One of her closest friends who also works with her on a robotics team, junior Andreana Yin, was very impressed with the work her friend had done for the community.

“I thought she worked very hard for it, and that she deserved it,” Yin said. “She has inspired me with the hard work she put into this program.”

While she has inspired her friends, Thomas also hoped to inspire the young Dallas students as well. Thomas said her inspiration for the project stemmed from making sure that students knew about the technology field before getting to college.

“I noticed a lot of the time, kids do not have experience with technology before they decide what career they want to have and what major they want to pursue,” Thomas said. “I hope that I got them to think about the field of science and technology.”

While Thomas has been fascinated with technology since a young age, she hopes that she brought some new students to enjoy her passion as well.

“I got into robotics when I was 12,” Thomas said. “I hope that I have opened these students’ eyes to the careers that are in science in technology.”