Launch at LPS: Northeast senior Millie sets sights on becoming star engineer

April 14, 2025

Northeast High School senior Millie is planning to design a career that will one day take her to the far reaches of the Milky Way galaxy.
 
Millie is setting her sights on landing a star-studded job in the space engineering field. She would like to use her imagination and intellect to create space equipment such as rovers, satellites and rocket ships. Her comet-sized resume includes multiple academic and leadership awards, and she has secured a pair of major engineering scholarships for college.

 
Northeast Principal Keri Applebee and social studies teacher Matt VanEngen both said Millie has been a role model for her fellow Rockets. Millie serves as Student Council president, is involved in National Honor Society and is taking an independent study class in advanced engineering. She has also been student manager for the girls basketball team, led fundraisers for local charitable organizations and offered friendly smiles to everyone she meets.

 
“Millie is an incredibly bright student with an incredibly bright future,” Applebee said. “She will be a leader as an engineer when she graduates college.”
 
“I think that Millie will be incredibly successful in college and her career!” VanEngen said. “In order to be successful, you have to have a consistency about how hard you work and a commitment to doing that every day, and that is exactly what Millie has. She has all of the tools to be successful as she moves into the next phase of her life.
 
“She works hard, she takes initiative, she is reliable, she is someone you can depend on and she is someone who is dedicated. We will miss her very much next year but are so excited for her future!”

 
Millie said she enjoys the process of putting together puzzles in both engineering and service-oriented arenas. She has designed racecars powered by rubber bands, created a blueprint of a tank-car hybrid and used 3-D printers for construction projects. She has also attended Northeast administrative meetings in her Student Council role, operated the scoreboard at basketball practices and coordinated blood drives and clothing drives for the People’s City Mission.
 
“I like figuring out how to solve the problem that’s in front of me,” Millie said. “It’s fun to look over all of the options and come up with the best way to do something. The creative part of that is something I really like.”

 
Millie said her time at Northeast has been a good training ground for her engineering dreams. She has etched her name on Northeast’s Honor Roll and has earned a pair of prestigious financial awards. She received the $30,500 Wallace Scholarship from the Wichita State University College of Engineering and an $18,000 scholarship from the National Science Foundation.
 
“It created an environment that prepares you well for college,” Millie said. “I took a lot of AP (Advanced Placement) and Diff (differentiated) classes, so all of those were heavily preparing me for college, especially with getting dual-credit classes.”
 
Millie first became interested in astronautical activities in eighth grade, and her love of space topics grew as she moved through high school. She became determined to work in the space industry after attending a camp at an international science education center and space museum in Hutchinson, Kan.
 
“There’s so many things you can do with engineering when it comes to space,” Millie said. “You can design a whole rocket ship, or you can be the person who designs the chairs that astronauts have to sit in when they’re launching off. I’d be happy doing anything with space.”

 
Sarahi Lopez began working with Millie when she was a student teacher at Northeast, and she has continued to help her as a full-time instructor this year. After she heard Millie had already taken her Engineering 2 class at Northeast, she helped her arrange an independent study course in engineering. The class will allow her to become certified in the Autodesk Inventor software program.
 
“She’s amazing,” Lopez said. “She’s very persistent and she’s willing to take the time to solve the problem. She’s just an incredible problem solver.”
 
VanEngen, who also serves as Northeast’s head girls basketball coach, said Millie made practices and games smoother with those same management skills. She ensured water bottles were always full, organized every player’s jewelry on game days and kept practice sessions running on time.
 
“If anyone ever needed something, Millie was there to help,” VanEngen said. “Millie was so influential in our day-to-day operations. She will be missed so much now that she is graduating. Her organization is everything you want from a manager!”

 
Lopez said she is eager to watch Millie’s future take shape. She said her contagious confidence and willingness to work hard would make her a shining star in everything she does.
 
“It’ll be bright,” Lopez said. “Just from talking to her and working with her, I can see her going to space. I know I’ll be reading an article 20 years down the road, and I’ll be thinking, ‘Oh, it’s Millie. See what she’s doing!’ It’s cool to know that she’s going to do great things in her life. She is going to go so far.”

Congratulations, Millie!

We wish you the best in your future endeavors.

We are thankful our educators could help you Launch at LPS!
 

Looking for LPS graduation information?

Check out our graduation page at https://home.lps.org/graduation/ to get the details on celebrating your favorite high school grad.
 
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