BranchOut! Celebrates a Successful Start!
As the first week of BranchOut! drew to a close, the team wants to take a moment to celebrate the successful start. We are happy to see our student volunteers demonstrating exceptional teamwork and achieving fantastic team and personal milestones.
During the first week, the different teams and programs showed tremendous enthusiasm and determination. Here is a recap of what each team did:
The Innovators team hit the ground running in their first week, displaying an exceptional level of dedication and creativity. The Innovator Curriculum Developer Team developed our latest App for kids' math, setting an impressive precedent for the weeks to come.
Maryland STEAM Camp is a free summer camp with fun STEAM activities and tutoring at Rockville Memory Library every Sunday for kids ages 7-13. The MD STEAM Camp volunteers team kicked off their first week with exceptional dedication and enthusiasm. They created a nurturing and educational environment for inspiring children's love for STEAM, ensuring a memorable and impactful experience for all participants.
The Howard County Chapter also made a great start in serving the Howard County Public School System. With a passion for community engagement, the chapter members executed various initiatives that made a strong connection and relationship with the students.
The Boston Chapter is serving the Cambridge community this summer by working with students from diverse backgrounds.
The tutoring team is back at FCPS Credit Recovery Program this year and is working hard to ensure students do well in the 3-week summer program.
The Career Panel team hosted two panels, one on medicine and one on cybersecurity by collaborating with two other non-profit organizations.
The Explorer team has started interviewing students from over ten countries this summer to understand their unique stories.
Here are some testimonies from BranchOut! team members:
“Under the guidance of BranchOut! mentors, students implemented their creative designs to construct a weight-bearing bridge out of popsicle sticks. The 12 students attending were split evenly into four groups; our mentors collaborated with each group and explained the science behind this activity. Among the 4 popsicle bridges that eventually participated in the friendly competition, two were able to hold more than 6 books without crashing. The winner of the day came from a team where its popsicle bridge held 12 books! It was a great pleasure to see the successful implementation of everyone's creativity, and we cannot wait to work with these children in the next 4 weeks to continue fostering their interest in STEAM!” - Richard Zhu, MD STEAM Camp
“During the first week, we became acquainted with Android Studio and began to work on tasks to improve SOLve. It was informative as we worked on our coding skills as well as our teamwork skills. Everything went smoothly because the team leads ensured that everyone was being productive and they helped those that ran into issues. Overall, it was a fun and productive week and I am excited to keep working.” - Andrew Ji, Innovator Team
“We worked as a team on various tasks, getting to know each other and learning from one another. It has been fascinating to observe the dynamics between the two teams and see how the curriculum design team supported the developer team by providing the necessary resources to work on the project - constructing/improving an app to help as many students with standardized tests as we can. So far, the experience has been nothing short of amazing, and I am looking forward to the upcoming weeks! During the first week of my time at BranchOut, we worked as a team on various tasks, getting to know each other and learning from one another. It has been fascinating to observe the dynamics between the two teams and see how the curriculum design team supported the developer team by providing the necessary resources to work on the project - constructing/improving an app in order to help as many students with standardized tests as we can. So far, the experience has been nothing short of amazing, and I am looking forward to the upcoming weeks!” - Emily Qiu, Innovator Curriculum Design Team