Fayette High School junior Amaya Burchett was one of three students awarded a $1,000 prize by S. M. Wilson & Co.’s SKILLED® construction career program during a ceremony at the company’s headquarters in St. Louis on Monday, April 7.

“This project was to create a project proposal that encourages STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) learning within my community,” Burchett explained to the Fayette school board Monday night.

She will complete her project by hosting a science day for third, fourth, and fifth-graders at Daly Elementary on May 5.

S. M. Wilson’s Construction Career Education program SKILLED provides hands-on opportunities to integrate academic learning and focus on future employment in the A/E/C industry. The company established the initiative in 2019 to inspire the future of construction, a field struggling to employ enough workers. More than 17,000 students have been impacted since 2019.

The SKILLED Awards were launched in 2021 to honor the firm’s 100th anniversary. They challenge high school students to create a process, lesson, activity or product that engages in STEAM learning with younger students in an inspiring way. Sponsored in partnership with the Missouri School Board Association (MSBA), the Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA) and the STL Works, this year’s SKILLED Awards awarded three $1,000 prizes.