Carolyn J.

Carolyn James is a 16 year old senior at Garces Memorial High School in Bakersfield, CA. She prefers to be called CJ. CJ is an active Girl Scout and has been for the last 12 years. She recently earned her Gold Award. CJ created, funded and implemented a robotics program for a migrant school in Weedpatch, CA. She is extremely active in her school’s Project Lead the Way program, where she is the V.P. of the Engineering Club, President of Robotics Club and Captain of the Coding and Robotics Teams. In addition, CJ founded the Society of Women Engineers Next club to keep more girls in STEM classes. CJ has a passion for servant-leadership at school. She is the President of Interact Club which works with Rotary International to volunteer in the community, and the President of her school chapter of National Honor Society. CJ has been a member of Leaders in Life, which holds a youth conference for teens by teens, for the past 7 years, with over 2000 students a year. For the past 4 years, CJ has been the Head of Marketing & PR, where she has mentored over 90 students in leadership capacities. Her greatest technical accomplishment is hard to narrow down. She earned SWE Innovator and Judge’s Awards in VEX robotics competitions in the spring of 2024 but recently she was awarded Best in Class for Design and Best in Division for Trade Skills for her CAD housing designs at the Kern County Fair. CJ has applied to several universities to pursue a BS in Computer Science with an emphasis in Cybersecurity.