Delegate Johnson Praises Navajo Pine Students' STEM Projects at Revived Science Fair

Delegate Casey Allen Johnson served as a judge at Navajo Pine High School’s science fair on Feb. 11, 2026, commending student projects and highlighting candidates for an all-expenses-paid trip to the National American Invitational Science and Engineering Fair in Oklahoma City, Okla. Navajo Pine High School is identified in the Navajo Nation press release as a School of Technology under Gallup-McKinley County Schools.

The press release named the top projects and student teams: Hailey Yazzie and McKayla Tsosie received first place in Environmental Science for “Matchstick Forest,” while Leila Tsabetsaye, Ava Tsosie, and Alexia Kisemh earned second place in Environmental Science for “What Absorbents Clean Oil Spills the Best.” In Computer Science, Abel Arthur and Jakobe Rodriguez received first place for “Weights and Robots.”

In the Office of the Speaker press release dated Feb. 26, 2026, Delegate Johnson framed the fair as connecting STEM work to cultural values, saying, “This opportunity for our students affirms access to Native knowledge systems and encourages research grounded in Diné values.” The release also quotes Johnson on broader pathways, stating, “Participation in NAISEF supports sustained engagement in STEM pathways and provides students with opportunities to present and share their data with peers.” An Instagram post attributed to Delegate Johnson, included in the materials provided, begins, “Our Navajo students are so brilliant in their ideas,” and is truncated in the available excerpt.

The press release describes the NAISEF trip as an all-expenses-paid opportunity and characterizes NAISEF as “the largest national STEM competition and learning experience for Indigenous students.” The release notes the trip to NAISEF is pending approval from Gallup-McKinley County Schools, a condition attributed to someone identified only as Etsitty in the release; the press release does not provide Etsitty’s first name or title.

An original, shorter report on the event states the Feb. 11 fair was the first science fair hosted at Navajo Pine in several years and that the event drew judges and partners including Delegate Johnson. That detail about a multi-year hiatus does not appear in the Navajo Nation press release; confirming how long the school went without a fair and the reasons for the gap will be relevant to district planning and funding decisions for STEM programming.

The immediate policy question for McKinley County is administrative: whether Gallup-McKinley County Schools will approve travel for students to a national competition and what oversight, chaperone, and funding arrangements will follow. Approval would move winning students from a local showcase at Navajo Pine to a national Indigenous STEM stage, while denial or delay would leave those opportunities contingent on district processes. The outcome will offer a clear signal about local institutional support for sustained STEM pathways tied to Navajo cultural priorities.