The BranchOut! Blog

Sunday, October 13th, 2019 is the fourth annual BranchOut! celebrate event. About 300 people from DC, Maryland, and Virginia gathered at the Kreeger Auditorium to attend this regional event. This year, we had Tony lodge, Ryan McElveen, and Paul Li as guest speakers. The guest speakers talked about their experiences, insight, and support of STEM education in society as well as cultural interaction. There were also several ethnic student groups performing this year, ranging f

As the school year ends, many high school students struggle to find the answer to one question of what they will do over the summer. With a plethora of options to choose from, from a summer job to tackling summer online PE, students tirelessly search for an activity that will allow them to explore their passion and stand out amidst hundreds of other high school students. This requires an activity that is fun, rewarding, and beneficial for both parties involved. BranchOut! is

On June 15, 2019, BranchOut! STEM Education had its fourth annual training at the James Lee Community Center in Falls Church, Virginia. Founded in 2016, the organization’s main purpose is to spread STEM education to underserved communities and improve inter-community understanding through peer-mentoring. Mentors serve at community centers, homeless shelters, and summer schools as of 2019. Dr. Yuhsien Wu, a Harvard graduate from the School of Education, and Mr. Richard Wang we

On Saturday, September 14, 2019, about 40 BranchOut! student mentors and parents took part in BranchOut!'s DC National Mall trash pickup event. About 10 student leaders got to the National Mall at 8am to set up and meet with the staff from the National Park Service. The actual trash pick-up event started around 9:30am after the team was debriefed. This was our first trash pick-up event, and BranchOut! team was proud to be able to take care of our environment by collecting

This past summer marked the 4th year of BranchOut! STEM Education’s mentoring program, with its largest range of mentors and mentees yet, consisting of 132 mentors and 9 mentoring locations serving over 600 students. BranchOut! mentors have been able to make strides in closing achievement gaps in education and driving meaningful change in their communities by designing innovative curriculum, forming connections, and giving support to students at various community centers and