WSU Tri-Cities student wins STEM scholarship

A Washington State University Tri-Cities student will receive a $2,000 scholarship and a trip to a science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM conference thanks to a national organization.

Fernando Serna is one of 107 scholars to receive the Hispanic Engineers National Achievement Award from the Great Minds in STEM organization, according to a news release. He will participate in networking opportunities while attending the conference in Pasadena in mid-October.

He was an English language learner in grade school but his reading improved dramatically by the second grade, the release said.

He is pursuing an electrical engineering degree at WSU Tri-Cities and hopes to work for Lockheed Martin.

He looks forward to flying on an airplane for the first time and meeting representatives from some of the best engineering companies in the world at the upcoming conference.

This story was originally published September 17, 2015 at 10:39 PM with the headline "WSU Tri-Cities student wins STEM scholarship."