Lonoke High School EAST Students interviewed to be able to attend the state-wide EAST Conference with LHS EAST Teacher, Mrs. Southerland, in Hot Springs, AR during March 14th through the 16th of 2023. Students established booths filled with information about projects that they have been working on in class to showcase their ideas to fellow EAST members and learn about other projects themselves.

Lonoke presented five projects at the conference that included the creation of a mental health app for their community, an old gym renovation, cochlear device discovery through a remote gadget, updating street signs in their town, and building a program for kids in all  of Lonoke schools to connect.

LHS EAST enjoyed their time displaying these projects during the conference days. “The cochlear project was my favorite project to share because it is a sweet project that will help others find their cochlear hearing devices, which are such small and expensive devices that often match skin tones,” Senior Haley Nelson mentioned.

Not only did participants get the chance to teach others about their ideas, but they also got to learn about more projects that kids from other schools are creating to solve issues. “One of the best projects from another school is where they took little kids’ drawings and turned them into stuffed animals to have something that supports keeping their imagination alive,” Junior Colton Amato described.

While they were not at the conference, LHS EAST conducted team bonding activities like bowling and eating out together. Nelson added, “We were going to go golfing, but we weren’t able to do that. However, it was very fun getting to watch everyone bowl and enjoy themselves.”

Participants even communicated about their tons of fun together during these days. “Each night we hung out in someone’s hotel room and we were able to build a strong relationship this way,” Amato stated.

Haley Nelson exclaimed her thoughts about being a senior at EAST Conference. “Honestly my favorite thing was getting to go again. It has been so long since I’ve been and it was so much fun to go with my group of friends,” she said.