Future Leaders winner innovating in rural Colorado
CBS News Colorado, with its partners at PDC Energy and Ping Identity, celebrate high school students who are excelling in science, technology, engineering and math. The Future Leaders award comes with a $1,000 prize and a profile on CBS News Colorado.
The newest Future Leaders winner is Mylo Lovejoy, a junior at Campo High School, in the small town of Campo, Colorado, which is 9-miles from the Oklahoma border in the southeast part of the state.
"We're going to have to insulate the bus," Lovejoy explained as he showed us an old school bus outside his school. "Plexiglass on the roof."
Lovejoy and his school mates are turning an old school bus into a hydroponic greenhouse. They are currently in the planning stages, and will start building next semester. This project got Lovejoy and his school mates invited to Denver for the Colorado State University Food Summit.
"We wanted to put that in there just because it's a learning experience, and because hydroponics can be a very efficient at growing vegetables,"
The group toured the CBS News Colorado studio, and Chief Meteorologist Lauren Whitney sat down with Lovejoy for an interview.
"Tell us a little bit about what life in school is like in your area," Whitney asked Lovejoy.
"Well, there are four kids in my class," Lovejoy replied.
The Campo RE-6 school district is among the smallest in the state, with a little more than 40 students total.
"It's challenging, like finding teachers, for example, is very hard there," Lovejoy explained.
His classes are small, but often the teacher is not in his classroom.
"So, our math teacher this year, she's on zoom for 3-days a week, and on Thursdays, she comes to Campo and teaches us," he told Whitney.
It's Lovejoy's ingenuity that keeps him competitive with other high schoolers his age.
"It oscillates and it hits limit switches and rotates back and forth," Lovejoy said of a standard clay target thrower to make skeet shooting more challenging. "I did a lot of research about things that other oscillators have, and what works."
Out on his family's farm in Baca County, Lovejoy innovates often. His family raises sheep and chickens and constantly faces challenges. Whether it's problems on the farm, at school, or with the hydroponics project, Lovejoy is self-motivated to find the solutions he need.
"When you get done, you just, you feel very accomplished, and I enjoy that," he said.
Lovejoy plans to continue solving problems while studying mechanical engineering in college.
LINK: Nominate a Future Leaders candidate
CBS News Colorado, along with PDC Energy and Ping Identity, will select a total of six winners throughout the school year.
