David was commended for his work with El Sol Science and Arts Academy in Santa Ana and with Project CRYSTAL. At El Sol, David has been engaged in a design-based research project, a research practice partnership, to understand how to design afterschool programs that connect home, school, and community resources. Over the past two years, he has spearheaded an effort to develop and implement an afterschool program in Santa Ana – Super Science Squad -to support middle school students’ engagement and interest in STEM. With Project CRYSTAL David has been “instrumental in developing and maintaining relationships with school partners, spending countless hours working with teachers, students, and parents in classrooms and in the field.” The underlying goal of David’s work is to design and implement programs that support students so they will position themselves as active science learners and use science to improve their communities.