Captured in 59 pages is the Heart, Mind, & Pen of The Academy for Math, Engineering and

Science students.

In the school’s literary arts magazine, the student-selected artwork and written words mirrors the student body, said sophomore Clara Kirkwood, who serves as its art editor.

“The selections aren’t based on what’s the best necessarily,” she said. “It’s based on who we are as a school the best. That’s what we pride ourselves on.”

For example, in the 2022-23 edition, there was a top-down perspective of the final CAD model arm extension assembly mounted on last year’s FIRST Robotics Competition Robot developed by the AMES robotics team, Amperes. 

There also was a piece titled, “I Hate Writing,” by Alexander Bamberg, class of 2026, who said while enjoying learning, he had never enjoyed writing, but knows it is “a core component of modern education and life. Writing is used to express ourselves: for explaining a math solution, presenting a time in history, or displaying a trifold in a science fair.”

That isn’t to say the literary magazine doesn’t have the intimate words and artwork which reveals emotion and self within the teens who create it. They explore feelings of being lost, challenged, not accepted, being different, and celebrating their differences.

“We don’t ask students to draw or write something that represents AMES. It’s more of who we are as people in the school, our voices being heard,” Kirkwood said.

The four-member staff of the Heart, Mind, & Soul select from more than 100 written and about 50 art submissions from the 470 students. Near the end of the school year, they were putting together the last pages of the annual literary magazine, volume 18, and were planning to submit it to the REALMS contest.

Last year, the publication received the highest award, the First Class award from REALM— Recognizing Excellence in Art and Literacy Magazines—for high school and college literary magazines by the National Council of Teachers of English, said senior Hannah Paisley Zoulek, who serves as the editor-in-chief.

“It’s a collaborative process when we design it, put it together, collectively choose the material and produce it,” Zoulek said. “When I got the results from our adviser (Amy Noyce), I was very excited to share it with everyone. This reflects us, who we are.”

Zoulek, who’s artwork of an octopus graces the literary arts magazine, joined the staff as a freshman being “an English nerd at a STEM-related school,” she said. “It served as a playground for my mental health.”

Kirkwood also enjoys art and writing so the literary magazine provided “an outlet for art and creativity. I joined because I really wanted to make something and be a part of this community.”

The staff also are part of the literary art campus club, which recently collaborated with the art, poetry and music clubs to make and produce a five-minute documentary. λ