Cheverus Stories

Cheverus offers a STEM endorsement on a student’s graduation diploma to recognize the coursework and co-curricular experiences for students to become college and career ready in science, technology, engineering, and math. This distinction, which highlights the STEM offerings at Cheverus, creates experiences for students where curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking thrive. 

There are four strands to the STEM endorsement: 

Strand 1: Academic Coursework

Strand 2: Student Choice or additional course work or event involvement

Strand 3: Research & Design

Strand 4: Service & Leadership 

In April, senior Paige Cutler fulfilled the Strand 3 component of her STEM endorsement by presenting at the New England Youth Identity Summit, an event that drew almost 200 students, teachers, and volunteers from six states and at least 15 Maine high schools. Her presentation was entitled "Bringing Behavioral Science Research into the Classroom." Cutler said, "I had never done research or made a presentation like this. It was all new." It was a positive experience for her, and she will now enter college with plans to major in Psychology, having conducted and presented research in that field.

Seniors Clare MacDonald and Emma Tweed organized a series of STEM-based learning opportunities for third and fourth grade students at St. John’s Catholic School as part of Strand 4. They conducted experiments with this group of students once a week after school. Each week of experiments focused on a different field of science, including physics, biology, chemistry, human anatomy, and environmental science.

Participation in the four strands challenges students to think and act like a scientist—to question, make careful observations and predictions, analyze data, and apply and explain their personal knowledge. By engaging in the learning environment inside and outside the classroom, students will develop habits of mind such as openness to new ideas, perseverance, adaptability, self-direction, and integrity.