On Saturday, November 14th, we had our 2020 BranchOut! Celebration and Open House Event, commemorating the 5th year anniversary of BranchOut! and the hard work our mentors have done over the past summer! We heard from inspirational speakers, Ms. Melody Curtiss, Mr. Ryan McElveen, Dr. Paul Li, Dr. Yuhsien Wu, Eric Lin, Songhan Pang, Anshu Sharma, Austin Zhang, & Kevina Wang, and saw amazing performances by Natya Margam Dance Group, Maddilynn Ra, Rick Yoon, & Lily Walters. Here

Tony Lodge shared his inspirational story from Homeless to Capitol Hill. As an aged-out foster child, Tony was homeless throughout college a

Recently, Black Lives Matter has been trending in the news and media. I had a simple understanding of it, but I still wasn’t confident. I saw people get backlash for saying “all lives matter”, and I didn’t want to say anything inappropriate like that. So, in a desire to learn more and increase awareness of our local Black Lives Matter community, I interviewed Makeba Scott Hunter, a concerned mother and Black Lives Matter advocate from Herndon. She recently attended 3 separate

On the night of March 13th, 1964 in Queens, New York, Catherine Susan “Kitty” Genovese was murdered by Winston Moseley. Many residents around the area heard the hour-long attack, but no one came to help or even called the police. This case sounds more like a scene from a movie rather than an actual event. How can someone, let alone a whole neighborhood, ignore the cries of a murder victim? Unsurprisingly, this case caught the attention of city dwellers, crime investigators, a

You probably have heard or read it somewhere, maybe from your parents, or maybe you are a parent and you’ve told your child: “listening to classical music makes you smarter”. In 1991, Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis was the first to talk about the Mozart Effect. In his book Pourquoi Mozart?, he believed listening to Mozart would help the ear and brain develop, which would then prevent or cure disorders like ADD, autism, and dyslexia. This belief didn’t go far, but in 1993, Frances Rau

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, thousands of schools across the globe are closed indefinitely. Children are stuck at home with online school, while parents work from home. While many tend to look at temporary closures as a period of rest, this current situation has pushed many to become more productive, perhaps even more productive than they were before. So, where does this urge come from? How do we define productivity, and how has quarantine affected that? What is Productivi

BranchOut!, as part of Veritas Education Leaders, a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization, has partnered with STEP Mentorship and Girls Who Math to uphold the standards of learning. Ever since the closure of the public school systems in the country, BranchOut! student leaders have been working hard to alleviate the burden of educators by bringing BranchOut! services to students in need. BranchOut! services include a free online tutoring program that is personalized to the needs