Lois Capps: “I rise with great pride this morning to congratulate Amir Abo-Shaeer from Goleta, California. Mr. Abo-Shaeer was awarded…”

“I rise with great pride this morning to congratulate Amir Abo-Shaeer from Goleta, California. Mr. Abo-Shaeer was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship Grant for his tremendous work at Dos Pueblos High School as an engineering and physics teacher. He also established and leads the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy, which competes annually in the Robotics World Championship, entitled FIRST. For the last 2 years, the Dos Pueblos High School team, half of which are young women, has been awarded the Motorola Award for the best designed robot at the competition. Mr. Abo-Shaeer is the first public school teacher to win this prestigious award and a powerful testament to the importance of science and math education in our schools. His innovative, challenging, and outside-the-box teaching style is exactly what we need to create and inspire the next generation of American engineers, scientists, and innovators. On behalf of the entire Santa Barbara community, I want to send the heartiest congratulations to this dedicated public servant.”