Award Honorees

Alana Aamodt ‘14 has pursued her interest in physics and design since graduating from MHS. Her company, Momentix, makes science a welcome subject for all through the creation of inclusive STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) toys.

When Aamodt was a 5th grader at Excelsior elementary school, she built a Rube Goldberg machine. This sparked her interest in engineering and physics, which continued throughout her school career. After graduation, she went to Colorado College and majored in physics.

Aamodt moved to Denver in order to focus on starting her toy company, Momentix. Momentix, is a focuses on providing diverse and sustainable access to a creative form of STEM exploration for children. Together with her co-founder, Aamodt launched a Kickstarter in 2021, raising more than $40,000. Today, Momentix has reached a point where they are finally happy with the product and company.

“My work with STEM has led to a lot of fun and wild side jobs and art installations,” shared Aamodt. “ For example, I build a Rube Goldberg machine which cut a wedding cake. It was featured in Vogue, which was fun!”

Aamodt is currently working on a graduate degree in industrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design.  She is interested in exploring the idea of designing directly with materials and projects, instead of just concepts.

“I’m excited to refocus on the hands-on creating of things within a team of people through the master's program,” Aamodt said. “A lot of the experiences that have really stuck with me have been the mindful hands-on ones, like the first batch of Momentix toys. My co-founder Anna and I made thousands of pieces ourselves by hand, which was a really good exercise in just doing.”

Aamodt cautions students to not overwork themselves. “It took me a long time to unlearn the idea that productivity defines value, and have had to learn how to feel good while not working really hard," she said. "Have balance, work hard, but also find time to find your passions beyond school and just focus on who you want to be instead of just achieving for the sake of achievement.”