The BranchOut! Blog

Happy First Day of BranchOut! 2018! Day one started out with a bang at the Montgomery County Public School and James Lee Community Center! Here you can see our mentors gearing up to meet their first round of students! Students began day one by tackling the topic of problem solving, using Legos and K'nex to build different structures. Mentors guided each age range to success with a different perspective, goal and strategy. A great start to the summer! #branchout2018

This past Saturday, members of the BranchOut program gathered at Pender Professional Center in Fairfax, VA for a training session. BranchOut is a multicultural STEM education program that was created by Dr. Yushien Wu in order to help spread cultural awareness and to foster interest in STEM related topics. During the session, educators and executives taught the mentors how to succeed in educating and creating relationships with their mentees. Nitu Mohan from Madison High Sch

Last year, I participated in the Branchout program. I was able to meet people from unique cultural backgrounds and students with different learning needs. During my experience, I built strong relationships with my mentees. One of these mentees was a 21 year old student who had recently moved to America from Afganistan. Despite his social status, he was brilliant, constantly trying to learn how to read English and develop his linguistics. One day, we had a conversation about w

Delegate Kenneth R. Plum invited Dr. Sharon Wu to his show to talk about the Branch Out! Multicultural STEM Education program. This non-profit program attracted 65 students from 25 different schools this summer to help over 200+ charter school, FCPS, and homeless shelter students (our second year!). This program will be aired on Reston Comcast Channel 28 (Verizon Channel 1981) on Tuesday, November 14 at 7:30 p.m. and repeated on Wednesday, November 15 at 10:30 p.m. You can a

Starting on 11/14, current mentors or those interested in joining our program are welcome to come volunteer at the James Lee Community Center every Tuesday from 4-5 pm and receive 1 hour of community service. This volunteer opportunity is hosted by the McLean High School Computer Science Honor Society and volunteers will help elementary school kids with STEM related activities to help the kids develop an interest. Activities include, but are not limited to: origami, lego buil