Alondra Saldaña Simiano named Technology Student of the Year for high school
Alondra Saldaña Simiano is a senior at Woodburn High School (WHS) with approximately 1,600 students located in Woodburn, Oregon. Alondra consistently took AP college credit math courses before taking a dual credit college Computer Science Intro class for CS 160 in her junior year. “Alondra stretched her problem-solving muscles by learning the fundamentals of Java code and mastering computing concepts such as boolean logic circuits, the CPU machine cycle, and the binary and hexadecimal number systems. For her final coding project, she created a text-based game where the player took care of a capybara and could earn in-game currency called capybucks depending on how well they took care of their digital pet,” states her CS teacher Stephanie Partlow.
During her senior year, she took four CS or engineering classes on app development, web page design, and engineering course offerings. In her Computer Science Capstone, Alondra is developing an iOS app to help young people budget better and track their finances with the goal of publishing her app on the Apple App Store. In this class, she participates in a simulated work-based learning experience where she is learning the Swift programming language, XCode–Apple's professional IDE–and source control via XCode's integration with GitHub. She is practicing the software engineering cycle through weekly sprints and monthly check-ins with her local industry partner.
Alondra is an inaugural member and club officer of the WHS Technology Makers Club where she completed a demo project in electronic programmable textiles and is now teaching it to others. She is an enthusiastic advocate for computer science, technology, and engineering working with middle-school students on STEM projects. Her fluency in English and Spanish aids students as well as helps in explaining project work to the student’s parents.
As part of the WHS College and Career Fair, Alondra shares information about her tech classes and club with interested students including running virtual reality (VR) mini sessions where students can get a live demo of the WHS CS program using Apple's Vision Pro. For many students, this is their first experience with VR.
Alondra’s extra-curricular activities include playing the flute in the WHS Mariachi band in performances at the Portland Art Museum and Moda Center for both preshow and halftime Blazers games.
Alondra indicates that she plans to attend Oregon State University to study bioengineering to help improve people's lives, and to eventually study biomedical engineering. She first became interested in biomedical engineering her junior year through her technology classes and club.
Click here to see a complete list of the TechStart technology teachers and students who won TechStart 2026 awards.