Exemplary Teacher Helps Kids Excel in Science and the Arts

Tom Stueve ’89 has to be one the most encouraging and empowering teachers in the entire state of Oregon.

As a science teacher at Trinity Lutheran School in Bend, he has built a far-reaching science program which launches students into college and, later, graduate schools and sends them to national science competitions for their innovative projects. As a theater practitioner, he helped found a drama program at the school, and puts students in charge of all the technical aspects.

“Tom is one of those people who helps others reach places that seemed far beyond their reach,” says Gregg Pinick, Trinity’s head of school. “He is a favorite of our graduates. But above all things, he loves the Lord and is a wonderful husband and father.”

Arguably, Stueve’s biggest impact has come through the Oregon Solar Car Team he founded in 2007, in which high school students design, construct, and operate a fully functioning, solar-powered racing car. The team comprised of Trinity students competes annually in the Solar Car Challenge, this year placing third at the national competition by traveling more than 500 miles in 327 laps around the Texas Motor Speedway. No prior experience is required for students to join the team.

Early in his time at Trinity, “I was looking for a hands-on team-building activity that seemed challenging, and we happened to have a couple on our faculty from Adelaide, Australia, where they race from Darwin to Adelaide,” Stueve says. “He mentioned solar cars, then wrote the grant. Off to Texas he and I went for training.”

That introduction has led to nearly 14 years of empowering students to build full-size cars from aluminum and now carbon fiber. The team’s current car is covered with solar cells which pull power from the sun, store it in batteries, and use it to run the car.

“This is not a kit,” Stueve emphasizes. “You design the car from the ground up. It incorporates everything. My guys know how to do the hardest kind of welding there is. They welded the entire frame.”

His students are now soldering the solar array cell by cell before taking it to San Jose where a company will help them “encapsulate” the cells.

“The students make all the decisions,” Stueve says, for example, shifting from an aluminum body to one made of carbon fiber. As the team declares on its official website, “We are not afraid to put our victory on the line in the name of pushing the envelope for what is possible. We have, and will continue to, prioritize scientific advancement over our sure victory.”

The pinnacle of each solar-car-year is a four-day, eight-hour-a-day race around the Texas Motor Speedway. 

“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” Stueve says. “Whoever does the most number of laps is the winner.”

This year, the race went cross-country from Ft. Worth to Palmdale, California, with an awards banquet at Edwards Air Force Base. Students describe the race as “one of the best things they’ve ever done,” Stueve says. “It makes them extraordinary problem-solvers.”

Six seniors from this year’s team are going into engineering, at Virginia Tech University, California Baptist University, George Fox University, and Gonzaga University. Jobs and internships also open up for team members through the network of companies that support the team, Stueve says.

Stueve’s passion for starting new things was nurtured in Lutheran education, beginning in Monrovia where he attended Lutheran High School in La Verne. He started the school’s drama program as a student, and while his education was entirely Lutheran, his goal became to teach in the roughest public schools. To that end, he accepted a president’s scholarship (a full ride) to Christ College and “had an awesome time there, made great friends, and sent both of my sons there.”

While studying biochemistry, he dived into the university’s “really rich theatre program” and acted in shows, worked on lights, and built set pieces. He met Heather Halm ’88, whom he would later marry, when she was the assistant director and lead actress in Tartuffe. Tom was playing an angry brother with a sword, and helped build the set.

Stueve graduated with a degree in natural science and a minor in theatre (his senior showcase was an outdoor one-act play in a two-story set he constructed). After marrying Heather in 1989, she was called to teach at Concordia University Portland, and while Tom was “hoping for East L.A.,” he taught for 12 years in the Portland area. 

“The last two schools were what I was going for: underfunded, tough schools to be in,” he says. “Even when I worked in public schools, I always considered it a ministry because it’s about touching the lives of kids. I can do that in a very open way now and be very much a part of their faith life [at Trinity]. We have small group Bible studies and I get to be a mentor to young men and help them figure out some of their stuff they need to mature. In public schools I did that, but in a different way.”

Just as he was appointed director of the biotech magnet of Portland Public Schools, Heather was called to serve in the Concordia University Education Network (CUEnet), so the couple crossed the Cascades for Bend. By this time, Tom had earned a master’s degree in molecular biology and biochemistry, and in their new location he began teaching at Trinity, a school which now counts around 100 high school students.

Over the years he built what Pinick calls “one of the finest high school science programs in the state of Oregon” in which “his students receive local, state, and national recognition.”

Crossing the line into the arts, Stueve also became part of a team that created a theater program — and put students in charge of virtually everything technical as they produce annual middle school and high school musicals.

“We teach kids to do everything,” he says. “They fashion props, make set pieces, do lights and sound, and all the technical skills.”

Because of their hands-on training, Stueve’s theater graduates later ply their skills professionally and in volunteer capacities at churches and concert venues.

“It’s because we let them touch stuff,” he says. “At public schools, it’s usually an adult running the show. Kids run our shows. They decide when it starts. Everything. That’s my biggest thing. If you can empower kids, they come out with such confidence. They can do anything.”

The entire theater program is accomplished in a gym and two shipping containers.

“We conjure things out of air,” Stueve says with a laugh. The adult side of the theatrical team all share Concordia roots. Tom serves as technical director; Heather is director; Erin Cowan ’19 is vocal director; and Jon Vevia is producer. Then there is the local science fair which Stueve started and handed off to another organization to run. It qualifies students to participate in the International Science and Engineering Fair, and this year — again — one of Stueve’s students qualified to go to the international competition where $30 million in prizes are given away. This student trained an artificial intelligence program to identify various forms of skin cancer on darker skin, and made an app for it which can be used as a low-cost screening tool. All of Stueve’s science students must produce a project for the local fair.

“My philosophy of education is preparing kids for jobs that don’t exist yet,” he says. “I want kids to be able to do it all because that’s what I did, and I think it makes for a well-rounded person. In theater and in solar car, they are learning how to collaborate and communicate and solve problems really well, how to learn things about which they have no idea.”

Back in the solar car realm, one big task is to create a telemetry system — that is, getting performance data from the car in real time. That requires students to learn how a car “talks” digitally. They also learn computer languages like Python so they can program the car’s computer.

Some team members “hardly touch the car” but canvas businesses, develop relationships, and bring in finances. Some handle social media, but by the time they get to the race, all team members know everything about the car. 

True teamwork begins when the car breaks down, “and it will,” Stueve says. “Then they have to figure out how to fix it. That’s the joy, when they figure out what put them on the side of the road and then fix it — that’s the bonding moment.”

Stueve received Concordia’s 2023 Distinguished Service Award, presented to an individual based on significant contributions through service to his or her community, church, school and/or alma mater.

“Tom is an integral part of Trinity’s ministry and the Bend and Central Oregon communities,” says Pinick. “He is a student-first, servant leader. He has created opportunities for our students to go beyond their dreams by placing them in situations where they can get hands-on experience. He guides our students to discover solutions that they may not have ventured to attempt on their own. He is a master builder and a design-thinking expert. He volunteers to serve on our tech team. He models generosity through his time, talent, and treasure.”

For his part, Stueve is proudest of raising students’ level of confidence.

“That’s a huge piece to take with you. It’s something I felt when I was in drama as an undergraduate at Christ College and tried out for a show as a freshman,” he says. “Part of what I love about teaching at a small Lutheran school is that it’s not about what exists but what you want to exist. You just have to make it happen.”