Help NMHS's Rocketry Club Shoot for the Stars!

Update for GoFundMe Campaign April 26th, 2024

*Note: Our total funds needed this year are over $50,000, but we have already secured about $25K directly to our school. This is thanks to donors such as the Newark Educational Foundation and the Newark Rotary Club.

The Newark Memorial High School (NMHS) Rocketry Club is competing in two competitions this school year: the annual American Rocketry Challenge (ARC) and the NASA Student Launch Initiative (SLI), which is new for us this year. The ARC and SLI teams have different goals, different types of rockets, and will compete in different locations. Because of this, we’re stretched a bit thin and we’re reaching out to the community for support.

The SLI team won a coveted spot in the NASA competition last fall and has completed the design for their rocket including a payload to measure temperature and pressure during descent from a height of 5,000 feet. They have already successfully launched a small-scale version of their rocket at Snow Ranch east of Stockton with the Livermore Unit of the National Association of Rocketry (LUNAR) and are now building the full 6-foot version of their rocket. The team has now attended their launch in Huntsville, AL and is concluding the year with their PLAR.

Congratulations to the American Rocketry Challenge (ARC) Team from our NMHS Rocketry Club who qualified for the National Finals this year! The top 100 teams across the nation with the best scores out of 922 teams were invited to compete at Nationals. The ARC team is making some adjustments to their rocket and conducting more test launches to prepare for the new challenges of 800 and 850 ft at Nationals, compared to the 820 ft goal for the initial competition. “This is the 20th year that our Rocketry Club has competed at ARC and we’re super excited that we qualified for Nationals this year” says Team Captain Katie Gruendler. Co-Captain Bateel Ibrahim and additional team members Ahmed Hirzallah, Fernanda Noriega, and Pranav Sharma will also be traveling to Great Meadow, VA, near Washington DC for the competition. “The team has worked so hard all year and we are grateful to be representing the Bay Area at this prestigious event” says Bateel Ibrahim.

In addition to designing, building, and testing their rockets, the NMHS Rocketry Club has been busy with community outreach and fundraising. In December, the club sponsored a free STEM Faire at the Newark Ohlone campus with several activities for children and families including stomp rockets, origami stars, a Lucid Air EV, colored flames, exploring science activities at Ohlone and Newark Memorial, drinking “Rocket Fuel” (lemonade with dry ice), eating “Space Rocks” (cookies), and of course watching a real live rocket launch! Over 350 people came to join in the fun of science exploration at our hands on exhibits and activities.

We are supremely grateful to the many community members who have already contributed to our fundraising efforts to support the cost of rocket supplies and travel to launch competitions. We still need to raise additional funds to enable all team members to attend the championships in Alabama and Virginia this year and we hope the community can help us reach our goal (non-profit tax ID #94-1717677). Every donation, big or small, brings us closer.

For more information about the NMHS Rocketry Club, follow us @newarkrocketproject or @nmhsrocketry.