Academics

Odyssey Scholars Program

Click on each scholar's photo or name to read their monthly blogs.

Abby, Senior

Abby has always loved learning about how films are made. “I would find behind-the-scenes videos on Youtube and watch them for hours,” Abby said. Having first cultivated her interest in a career in film in Mr. Shoepke’s digital film class, Abby will spend her time as an Odyssey Scholar researching the many facets that compose the productions she loves, including American Horror Story. Inspired by her favorite directors: Ryan Murphy, Alfred Hitchcock, and Darren Aronofsky, Abby hopes to shed light on the experiences of directors and actors, including women in film, as an interview with Olivia Wilde made an impression on her after watching Don’t Worry Darling. Over the summer, Abby attended the National Student Leadership Conference Film Production & Screenwriting program at UCLA. While there she had amazing new experiences and made lifelong connections. Abby’s dad jokes with her that being a director is the perfect job for her because “you get paid to tell people what to do,” she quoted him, and Abby is confidently moving forward to pursue her dream of directing. In her free time, Abby is a competitive volleyball player and a member of the Sandia Prep varsity volleyball team.

Emma, Senior

From playing with legos as a kid to building furniture with her dad as she has gotten older, Emma has always had an eye for design. “I realized that I could see something in the structures they could not. My mind’s eye can see the line that runs through the structure. This lit a fire that has become a passion for architecture,” Emma said. As a native New Mexican and Latina, Emma’s Odyssey project explores the ways that culture is expressed in New Mexican architecture : “My family has been in New Mexico for more than 500 years making me a living example of blended cultures. I’m also something that is almost nonexistent in architecture, Latina/Native American. I want to develop a voice that represents my history and our State.” Inspired by her summer abroad in Spain last year and her architecture camp as a part of the Royale Academy in Oxford, England, Emma will be researching the connections between buildings and culture, focusing on the blend of traditional and modern elements. Emma will begin her path to becoming an architect and plans to design her own residential homes during her time as an Odyssey Scholar. When she’s not thinking about architecture, Emma is a competitive soccer player for Sandia Prep, loves to cook, and takes photographs. 

Isabel, Senior

During her time as an Odyssey Scholar, Izzy has been researching the connection between the mind and body during exercise, focusing on the impact of physical activity upon students’ mental and physical health. This investigation is personal to her. As a current student-athlete herself, Izzy knows from firsthand experience how exercise can act as a powerful tool in terms of fulfilling physical, mental, and psychosocial needs. By forming a school curriculum that incorporates physical activity within a classroom setting, Izzy plans to implement “methods and practices that adolescents can instill into their daily routines in order to [help students] reach a healthy balance of schoolwork, regular exercise, and healthy sleeping and eating patterns.” From running cross country and track to volunteering at the Balloon Fiesta Museum to serving as a fellow NHS officer, Izzy enjoys staying active in her community. Izzy plans to go into the medical field, and can see herself as a sports medicine physician who plans to help athletes recover from and prevent injuries, as well as achieve their goals.

Miri, Senior

Intersecting her passions for art history, painting, and social justice through creativity, Miri will spend her senior year as a scholar continuing to delve into the hypersexual and objective representations of women in fine art. Following her first solo exhibition of paintings and poetry titled “Unembodied Form: Reclaiming Correlations Between the Environment and the Divine Feminine,” Miri plans to continue making work while expanding her breadth of experimentation and research. Specifically, Miri aims to focus on the relationships between folk art and fine art, and how these specific realms of the art world have treated women artists and viewers throughout history. With an ultimate goal of bringing her writings and artworks to the greater Albuquerque community, Miri is also interested in the practice of mural arts and how stories, justice, and beauty can communicate with everyone rather than exclusively museum and gallery spaces. Throughout this process, Miri’s utmost priority is to “represent women in a way that celebrates who we are, apart from traditional nude figurative paintings which heavily sexualize and objectify the female body.”

Anya, Junior

A junior at Sandia Preparatory School, Anja loves spending time with her friends and family, playing basketball, and painting. For her Odyssey Scholars project, Anja plans to raise awareness for sex trafficking survivors around the world by learning about their resilience and using her passion for fine arts to showcase that. Anja hopes to volunteer to help survivors in recovery, interview workers in the field, fundraise for nonprofits related to sex trafficking prevention, and create an exhibition showcasing her art work with the goal of changing the way the Albuquerque community understands this issue. Anja said, “I want to show my community that this isn’t something just in movies or just in other parts of the world; this is important and there are documented sex trafficking cases in every single one of the 50 states. I hope that the more relevance it grows in my community might add a splash of water to the dry pit of unawareness about human sex trafficking.” Anja is interested in pursuing criminology or psychology in college, and hopes she “can use these degrees to help decrease the number of people going through human trafficking daily,” she said.

Benjamin, Junior

In response to current needs around environmental protection as a result of global warming, Benjamin is studying wave energy converters and their impact on the world’s ecosystems. With this knowledge, Ben plans to design and create a prototype of a kinetic energy converter that turns the kinetic energy of ocean waves into electrical energy. He will be evaluating location, wave conditions, and environmental impact with the goal of understanding and improving the gaps in current converters. Ben said, “The global warming crisis is becoming ever more pertinent and we need more efficient forms of clean energy. I've long thought that preserving the environment is of the utmost importance. Without it, we wouldn't have a safe home.” In his free time, Ben likes to visit local restaurants and play basketball with friends. Ben plans to become a mechanical or biological engineer in the future.

Finnian, Junior

Combining his long history of music in his family and friends, love of creative writing, and interest in musical self-expression, Finn will be researching the experiences of musicians both in their inspiration and creative process to explore lyricism techniques and production tactics that he can interpret and integrate into his own music. “Throughout my journey through both listening and playing it, I've discovered that music always has more to offer to anyone willing to listen. It’s a voice for when no one else fills the silence and a silence when everyone else has something to say,” Finn said. As both the founder of the middle and high school Gender and Sexualities Alliances here at Prep, and co-chair of the Youth Celebrate Diversity, a national nonprofit organization, Finn values giving back to and educating his community. Finn’s Odyssey Scholars project is both profoundly personal and educational, a reflection of the intricacies and universality of self-expression through music and lyricism.

Jonah, Junior

Combining their love of creative projects, video games, and their wit, Jonah is designing and programming a video game that adapts another one of their passions: theater. Jonah has participated in Prep’s theater program in many capacities and is ready to bring the world of Macbeth to life in a new way. What first began as an idea about writing and directing a play has evolved into the expansive and technical world of video games. Although there are many games that have been adapted into films or theater performances, there are little to no games that adapt a theater performance into a video game. A passionate actor, programmer, and gamer, Jonah shared, “I believe video games can and should be considered works of art, requiring countless time and talent to produce.” With innovation on their side, Jonah will be exploring uncharted territory through the Odyssey Scholars Program, well-prepared with curiosity and passion. Keep an eye out for Toil and Trouble (working title), releasing on Steam in 2026.

Madeline, Junior

Madeline Weisler, a junior here at Prep, plays basketball, runs track, and loves to spend time with her friends and family. Ever since Madeline discovered politics, she has been watching the presidential debates, keeping up with elections, and paying attention to headlines. Her parents even have a picture of her “reading” the newspaper in her highchair as a kid. As she has gotten more exposure and knowledge about the United State’s political situation specifically, that interest has turned more towards the media. For her Odyssey Scholars Project, Madeline will research how an article or news story can shape someone's political and world views. Madeline will research strategies, especially politically motivated, of distributing information and how they impact our lives, with the goal of translating this information into the creation of her own political magazine. Madeline said, “I would like to understand the media’s [persuasiveness] and connect it to their awareness and psychological analysis of their target audience, something that I hope to learn about for myself.” One of Madeline’s goals is to encourage her community to draw their own conclusions about the politics happening in our society, and provide opportunities for them to do so.

Oliver, Junior

Oliver’s love for all things technology led him to take a computer science class, and ever since, he has immersed himself in exploring programming through classes and personal projects. This year he is taking a dual credit computer science class and plans to continue computer science classes next year. In addition to his interest in computer science, he has been captivated by AI. “Whatever your opinion, it’s obvious to me that AI is going to play a massive role in my future as a student and entrepreneur. More specifically, I think specialized AI will be what shapes industries such as entertainment, manufacturing, design, and what I want to focus on, education,” Oliver said. Through the Odyssey Scholars Program, Oliver will develop an AI teacher’s assistant, with the goal of allowing teachers to spend more time with students and less on administrative tasks. Oliver hopes to make a difference in education through AI tools. Currently, Oliver also heads the DECA club at Prep, and plans to create and head an AI-based software company in the future.

Rylie, Junior

Rylie is a passionate soccer player, artist, writer, and student here at Sandia Prep, and loves animals and family more than anything. Along with these interests, Rylie has been fascinated by the science of criminology for years, and wants to utilize the Odyssey Scholars Program to shape her enthusiasm into something impactful. She is inspired by the work of the world’s renowned special agents and is passionate about exploring the connection between childhood influence and violent criminal behavior. Rylie plans to write analytical essays on a variety of subjects, including education, social media, parenting methods, geographical awareness, astrology, trauma, and mental disorders, and how we use these pathways to inspire criminal behavior. Rylie also wants to research the ways in which victim psychology and recovery affects the world’s perspective on violent crime. Rylie said, “I want to encourage and expand the discussion of criminology to bring it parallel with current-day issues and provide information to show what we can do to prevent raising criminal personalities within our society.”