La Joya ISD middle schooler takes home prestigious STEM award

LA JOYA — From 30 finalists participating at the 2026 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge in Washington D.C, Nathan Montelongo, a seventh grader at La Joya ISD’s De Zavala Middle School, took home an engineering award that comes with a $2,500 scholarship to a STEM summer camp. “I really didn’t think I was gonna win anything, but like I was just sitting down, cheering on everybody, and then they just said my name and I was really excited,” Montelongo said. “They said from La Joya, Texas and I was like ‘Oh my God’. I was really shocked and it was really cool.” The Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge is the nation’s premier STEM competition which aims to inspire young scientists, engineers and innovators who will solve the challenges of the future. The 30 finalists were selected by a nationwide panel of scientists, engineers and educators based on the student’s scientific research projects and met to showcase their projects and partake in competitions wit