
Customer Spotlight: Whitman Middle School
Creative students and patches in space!
Rick Cundiff
Educators and students are some of our favorite customers. We enjoy providing patches that inspire and educate the leaders of tomorrow. And as you might expect of a company run by a bunch of “Star Wars” fanatics, we love anything to do with outer space. So we’re especially happy to combine the two with this month’s Customer Spotlight!
Mr. Shigenaka's Class
Brad Shigenaka teaches at Whitman Middle School, a grade 6-8 public school in Seattle, Washington. Thanks to his students, patches we made went to space!
“We serve about 650 students. Our STEM Lab at Whitman has been around for about four years. I teach STEM elective classes to about half of our total population each year,”
It began with Shigenaka’s sixth graders.
“One of the courses I teach to my sixth graders has an aerospace unit. As part of the unit, we hold a design competition to design a NASA-themed mission patch for all STEM students for the semester,” he said. “Our generous PTSA funds the production of these patches, and every student gets to take a patch home as a memento of their time in the STEM Lab.
NASA mission patches, designed by astronauts, have been a part of U.S. space flights since 1965. The Whitman Middle School designs aren’t quite that old, but have been around in Shigenaka’s classes for several years.
“It has become a very popular tradition,” he said. “One I wish I could claim responsibility for starting, but it’s an idea stolen from a teacher in Michigan named Kim Jaster.”
Shigenaka’s students start by prompting an AI image generator to create a patch design that represents their classroom community with an aerospace theme.
“Many students chose to represent Mars on their patch,” he said, “but it was Elsie’s patch pairing the Space Needle and a Seattle ferry with a stylized version of Mars that was the runaway winner in this semester’s contest.”
One of last year’s designs actually went to space.
“I am fortunate to know someone working for Blue Origin, the aerospace company which is local to our community. They connected me with their Art Director, who came out before this year’s contest and gave a talk to students about art design for mission patches.” Shigenaka said. “My friend also arranged to have our existing patches sent up on a New Shepard rocket mission – one of the students from last year received a copy of his patch with a certificate showing it had been to space! That was special. We have the rest of them hanging in the classroom.”
The teacher found TJM when he was looking for a patch supplier.
“I found the process to be straightforward and your designers were very patient as we translated student designs into an embroidered patch,” he said. “I appreciate the proofing process and the fast turnaround, which can be important to me when the patch comes late in our semester. I wouldn’t look forward to trying to get patches into students’ hands during the summer!”
An Exciting Day
The patches are well-received among both students and staff.
“Students are always excited when the day comes to get their patches,” he said. “I also give patches to the PTSA and our administrative staff. One of our counselors has been sewing them on her denim jacket! She’s now up to five patches.”
We appreciate the vote of confidence that keeps supplying Mr. Shigenaka’s students with patches “twice a year, like clockwork” as he put it. He’s looking forward to exciting new designs in the future. “One day soon I hope that the winning design involves a shape other than a circle,” he joked.
We love having the chance to contribute to the dreams of our future engineers, scientists, mathematicians and astronauts. And we are truly thrilled that Mr. Shigenaka’s students designed patches that actually went to outer space. We look forward to continuing to serve the students of Whitman Middle School for years to come.
For More Information: https://whitmanms.seattleschools.org/
Rick Cundiff
Content Director, Blogger
Rick Cundiff spent 15 years as a newspaper journalist before joining TJM Promos. He has been researching and writing about promotional products for more than 10 years. He believes in the Oxford comma, eradicating the word "utilize," and Santa Claus.