4th Annual IndyVRC!

The 4th annual City of Indianapolis VEX Robotics Championship (IndyVRC) was held at the Indiana Convention Center on January 23rd and 24th and hosted over 160 robotics teams from across Indianapolis. Students competed for the coveted 5 foot Excellence Award trophy along with 22 other awards and honors during the two-day event, which is the largest city robotics competition in the nation. Historically held at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the IndyVRC moved to the Convention Center this year to accommodate the sheer size of participation and attendance. Over 5,000 people attended during the course of the weekend.

Each year, a VEX and VEX IQ challenge is presented to students in the form of a robotics game. Indianapolis students, with guidance from their teachers and mentors, use the VEX Robotics Design System to build innovative robots designed to score the most points possible in qualification matches, elimination matches, and skills challenges. In addition to having a great time and building amazing robots, through their participation in the VEX Robotics Competition and their work within their team, students will learn many academic and life skills.

The IndyVRC also hosted the 3rd annual STEM Fair, which showcases hands-on activities brought in by corporate, program, and community partners. This year, students participated in a game of BINGO that involved receiving stickers from visited booths to put on their BINGO cards. Those students who completed their BINGO cards were entered into a raffle for cool STEM prizes. Booth activities ranged from coding games on laptops to Math Pentathlon board games, 3D printing demos, and a robot that could sort Skittles by color. Roche Diagnostics, the presenting sponsor of the IndyVRC since its inception, brought a semi-truck outfitted with real, working machines used by the companies employees all over the world.

On Sunday January 24th,  Irvington Preparatory Academy won the Excellence Award, the highest honor awarded at the Indianapolis VEX Robotics Championship. As part of the Excellence Award, students who meet admission requirements on the Irvington Preparatory Academy team will be awarded $10,000 scholarships to Rose-Hulman. The team also is awarded one qualifying spot to the Indiana State Championship.

Congratulations to all the teams, students, coaches, and volunteers who participated in the event!

VRC Division Awards

• Excellence Award (State Championship Qualifying Spot + $10,000 scholarships to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology)
  • 8123 Irvington Prep
• Tournament Champions (3 State Championship Qualifying Spots + internships with the Information Services Agency from the City of Indianapolis for 2 students from each team)
  • 5690B Bishop Chatard High School
  • 6210 Heritage Christian School
  • 6210X Heritage Christian School
• Design Award – 5870 Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory Academy
• Energy Award – 7282D Franklin Central High School
• Innovate Award – 317A Horizon Christian
• Judges Award – 7368W Covenant Christian
• Programming Skills Champion – 6210X Heritage Christian School
• Robot Skills Champion – 8123 Irvington Preparatory Academy
• Sportsmanship Award – 8246 Perry Meridian High School

Middle School VEX IQ Awards

• Excellence Award (State Championship Qualifying Spot)
  • 6210A Heritage Christian
• Teamwork Champions (2 State Championship Qualifying Spots)
  • 6210M Heritage Christian
  • 6210A Heritage Christian
• Teamwork Finalists
  • 10364 Franklin Township West
  • 10778 Stonybrook Middle School
• Design Award – 20048 Franklin Township East
• Energy Award – 10364 Franklin Township West
• Judges Award – 48466 Guion Creek Middle School
• Robot Skills Champion – 6210A Heritage Christian School
• Programming Skills Champion – 6210A Heritage Christian School
• Sportsmanship Award – 1024F Fall Creek Valley Middle School

Elementary School VEX IQ Awards

• Excellence Award (State Championship Qualifying Spot)
  • 10675 St. Thomas Aquinas
• Teamwork Champions (2 State Championship Qualifying Spots)
  • 10990 Sycamore School
  • 11121 Lowell Elementary School
• Design Award – 10477 Paramount School of Excellence
• Judges Award – 11065 Thomas D. Gregg IPS 15
• Sportsmanship Award – 10270E Riverside IPS 44

Join Our Team as an AmeriCorps VISTA!

Since the kick-off of our US2020 initiative in August of 2014, TPF4Y has hosted 5 VISTA members who have dedicated their time to the growth and sustainability of this program. Our VISTAs continue to be an invaluable asset to the work we do in support of US2020 and so many of the initiative's successes, as well as the improvements and changes we continue to implement, are a direct result of the work accomplished by our VISTA members. As our second group of VISTAs finish up their one-year service terms, we are in the process of interviewing their potential successors.

AmeriCorps VISTA members live and serve in some of our nation's poorest urban and rural areas. With passion, commitment, and hard work, they create or expand programs designed to bring individuals and communities out of poverty. Want to learn more about becoming a VISTA? Visit the AmeriCorps VISTA FAQ page. 

TPF4Y is looking for three new VISTAs to start in July with a focus on continuing the progress we've made with the US2020 initiative here in Indianapolis.

US2020 Volunteer Coordinator (click here to learn more & apply!)

This VISTA member will be in charge of volunteer recruitment efforts with the support of the US2020 Program Director. He or she will focus on managing partnerships with community-minded companies, facilitating volunteer recognition efforts, and coordinating social media outreach. An outgoing, talkative individual with great people skills and the ability to speak to groups will excel in this role.

US2020 School Coordinator (click here to learn more & apply!)

This VISTA member will serve as the liaison between volunteers and the school and community center sites where they are volunteering. He or she will attend program sessions, respond to questions and concerns, coordinate the distribution and collection of evaluation materials, and facilitate the onboarding of new schools and community center sites. An organized person who enjoys working with both adults and students and who is patient and excels in email and in-person communication would be a good fit for this role.

US2020 Program & Evaluation Coordinator (click here to learn more & apply!)

This VISTA member will serve as the lead in evaluation procedures for the US2020 initiative in Indianapolis. He or she will facilitate the maintenance of existing surveys and evaluation methods, manage database input and reporting, and work with program-providing partners to ensure student and volunteer engagement. A detail-oriented person with exceptional organizational skills and the ability to multitask while working within a team environment will excel in this role.

We are looking forward to welcoming three outstanding new VISTAs to our team in July - please share this opportunity with any talented individuals you feel would fit the bill!

Hour of Code Reaches 375 Students!

Ilya Rehktor, CEO and Co-Founder of DoubleMap and TPF4Y board member, looks on while students learn the basics of coding.

Last Wednesday, students from IPS Sidener Academy had an opportunity to participate in Computer Science Education Week for the second year in a row thanks to the efforts of some dedicated TPF4Y volunteers! CS Ed Week is a worldwide grassroots campaign to encourage as many K-12 students as possible (with over 165 million served so far!) to participate in an Hour of Code activity. Students around the globe are encouraged to try their hand at coding by completing one of Code.org’s introductory activities:

• Star Wars: Building a Galaxy with Code
• Minecraft Hour of Code
• Code with Anna & Elsa

Nate Canada, Engagement Manager at DeveloperTown, helps a student with a question.

TPF4Y joined forces with 34 volunteers to take over Sidener Academy during the last period of the day for an hour of Star Wars and Minecraft coding for all 375 students at the school. Volunteers helped troubleshoot and answer questions as students programmed BB8 and R2D2 from Star Wars, learning the basics of coding while playing these fun games.

Hour of Code wouldn't work without the dedicated volunteers who come in to help the kids discover coding, something most of them have never considered despite the technology surrounding them in their day-to-day lives. The "behind the scenes" aspect of how their favorite video game works often seems out of reach.

"Suddenly writing code isn't quite as scary when you're directing R2D2 or helping an Angry Bird squash pigs," said Nate Canada, a DeveloperTown employee. "That's why I love volunteering for Hour of Code - it introduces the often 'scary world' of software engineering in a safe, fun way that allows kids to see the new worlds they can create with code."

Chris Vaulter, User Experience Researcher at Salesforce and incoming TPF4Y board member, engages with students.

While CS Ed Week is over for this year, there are still plenty of kids who are excited to try their hand at coding and need dedicated volunteers to do it.

"When children get to meet people working in different areas of the tech industry, they can start seeing themselves on that career path," says Chris Vaulter, User Experience Researcher at Salesforce and incoming TPF4Y board member. "You you don't need to be an expert to inspire them - just come with a passion for helping them learn and the program will do the rest."

TPF4Y's current US2020 Initiative has helped to start eight CoderDojo clubs around Indianapolis in the past year, but there are still lots of schools and community centers that want to get started. If you are interested in volunteering to help facilitate a CoderDojo for underserved kids, please contact us at Volunteer@TechPointYouth.org. We need your help to inspire kids to become the next generation of STEM professionals.

Emily Richards and Pat Adams, TPF4Y committee volunteers thanks to a partnership with the Orr Fellowship, enjoy their time with students during the Hour of Code at Sidener Academy.

US2020 City Network Convenes in Tulsa

Fab Lab Tulsa

The #US2020CityNetwork is a group of nine city-based coalitions, including Indianapolis, born from US2020's 2014 City Competition. As a Network, we come together approximately twice a year to accelerate each other's work during what we call Convenings, which are 2-3 day gatherings where representatives from each city are able to meet in person to brainstorm ideas and challenges, receive updates from national partners, and recharge our momentum around increasing STEM mentoring.

We gathered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from December 8th through the 10th for our fourth convening as a group. Hosted by the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance, we started our first day with a brief US2020 State of the Network address and a discussion around our work as we look ahead to the 2016-2017 fiscal year, before moving on to the Fab Lab Tulsa for dinner and a hands-on STEM activity!

Convening 4 attendees at the Fab Lab Tulsa proudly showing off their work as "digital fabricators!"

Fab Lab Tulsa is one of over 300 MIT-chartered Fab Labs in more than 50 countries and provides community access to advanced manufacturing and digital fabrication tools for learning skills, developing inventions, creating businesses, and producing personalized products. Nathan Pritchett, Executive Director of the Fab Lab Tulsa, turned us into digital fabricators for the night as we worked on laser-etching designs into "living hinge" notebooks. Our group's trip to the Fab Lab was even featured on the local news that night!

US2020 staff Megan and Oscar with TPF4Y Program Director Maggie Cline. 

Day two featured paired discussions among city representatives regarding "blueprints" for how best to organize and present comparable information pertaining to each city, a question that many of our local coalitions have been asking about. We also had a conversation with the Schusterman Family Foundation around foundation giving, a diversity in action session to discuss diversity within our networks, and a deep dive on evaluation procedures, both from a national and local perspective. We ended the night with a team dinner at a local pub, where we were able to spend quality time catching up with friends we only see twice a year!

Mayor Bartlett and representatives from the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance with their STEM Community award.

Our final day of the convening, we discussed co-funding opportunities, our continued work with AmeriCorps VISTA members, and the upcoming launch of the redesigned US2020 mentor matching platform. We also heard from Mayor Dewey F. Bartlett, Jr., after which he and representatives from the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance celebrated Tulsa's status as the first STEM Community in Oklahoma, as announced by Governor Mary Fallin. We closed over lunch with a presentation by Stephen McKeever, Oklahoma's Secretary of Science & Technology, regarding some alarming statistics about the extremely leaky STEM pipeline.

As always, the convening was a productive time of invigorating discussions that left us with a renewed energy around the STEM mentoring movement!

3rd Annual FLL Robotics Tournament!

On Saturday, December 5th, over 200 robotics students ranging in age from 1st - 8th grade swarmed the Learning Curve at the Central Library for the 3rd Annual FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Qualifying Tournament! Hosted jointly by the Learning Curve and TPF4Y since 2013, the event was created to offer a robotics tournament location that is accessible to inner city FLL teams.

The day began with opening ceremonies that led right into judging sessions for the 14 FLL teams in attendance. Teams present to groups of judges in each of three categories:

• Core Values - Teams are interviewed and observed to assess how well they have adhered to the Core Values, which are the cornerstones of the FLL program. By embracing the Core Values, FLL students learn that friendly competition and mutual gain are not separate goals, and that helping one another is the foundation of teamwork.
• Project - Teams present the solution they came up with for this year's challenge, as well as the research they did in order to formulate their solution.  Teams may perform a skit, a PowerPoint presentation, songs, or choose another creative way to share their project solution.
• Robot Design - Robot design judging can be compared to an engineering design review in the real world. Teams work toward having the robot that best meets the requirement of completing programmed robot "missions." While the competition is a good way of assessing the best robots, points are also based on how well a team can explain their design and all the things they considered while developing it.

The tournament also housed a Junior FIRST LEGO League (Jr.FLL) Expo, where teams of younger students can show off their LEGO models and present their ideas to reviewers. The Expo took place during the morning, with the High Five Ceremony for the 14 teams wrapping up around noon.

The afternoon was filled with the actual robot competition for this year's FLL challenge, Trash Trek, which asks teams to explore the hidden but fascinating world of trash, from collection, to sorting, to smart production, and reuse. 

Eight awards were given out during the closing ceremonies, two of which were presented by Mayor Ballard, who has generously supported the event with his attendance since the first year. Every student at the tournament also received a LEGO kit, donated by Ben Glenn, founder of The Chalk Guy Christmas LEGO Drive, which he coordinates with his young daughters. 

A huge thank you to the 50 volunteers who came out to help run the event - we couldn't have done it without you! And congrats to all the teams on a great day of robotics fun!

#GivingTuesday Cheers & Beers!

May your heart always be full and my your glass never be empty.

TPF4Y kicked off our 2nd annual #GivingTuesday event on December 1st at Bent Rail Brewery with lots of appetizers, free samples of Bent Rail's Winter Ale (brewed especially for us!), and plenty of holiday cheer! A big thanks to RSM US LLP for sponsoring the event!

Thanks to generous donors like you, we were able to raise $4,000 to support access to high-impact STEM programming for minority and low income students! 

Also, with over 50 of our friends in attendance, we kicked off our Giving(Circle)Tuesday concept and are excited to invite 125 professionals working for, or doing business with, STEM-focused companies to join for $500, ensuring underserved students get the opportunity to experience cool programs like coding, robotics, math pentathlon, and more. To learn more about the TPF4Y Giving Circle, please visit our webpage.

#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration. Observed on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving. 

#GivingTuesday harnesses the collective power of a group of individuals within the community to encourage and amplify small acts of kindness.

Welcome to Our New TPF4Y VISTA!

Emma and her dog Apollo.

An outdoor enthusiast who loves hiking, kayaking, biking, tennis, and gardening, Emma Venard has brought a breath of fresh air as TPF4Y's newest AmeriCorps VISTA member!

After graduating from Indiana University in 2014 with a degree in international studies and human rights (and a summer of conservation work in Ghana under her belt), Emma started on a slew of experiences that aligned with her studies and interests. She began in the fall of 2014 by moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to build hiking trails with the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps for a semester, then returned to Indianapolis for a spring internship with Purchased, a nonprofit raising awareness about human trafficking and the sex slave industry. She spent the following summer as a camp counselor with the Chase Legacy Center, and then moved on to her favorite of all of these opportunities: becoming an Education Coordinator with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis, where she worked with the target population of our US2020 initiative for 4 months before joining the TPF4Y team.

Emma during her summer in Ghana.

As the US2020 Corporate & Community Coordinator, Emma spends her time on volunteer recruitment and strengthening corporate partnerships. She was drawn to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA with TPF4Y because of the proactive human rights aspect of creating educational access for females, minorities, and kids from low income families. 

In her free time, Emma enjoys cooking new vegetarian dishes, planning future travel to warmer climates, and hanging out with her beloved dog, Apollo, and adorable nieces. 

Welcome, Emma - we're looking forward to working with you this year!

Giving Made Easy!

With #GivingTuesday just around the corner, TPF4Y is excited to share our presence on Givelify, an app designed to allow users to donate to their favorite charities quickly and easily. For nonprofits like TPF4Y, that means it's easier to donate during events and when the mood strikes supporters... hopefully during our upcoming #GivingTuesday event on December 1st! (Be sure to mark your calendar and RSVP here!)

Donating on Givelify is a quick process - let us walk you through it:

1. Go to the App Store on your mobile device, search for Givelify, and download it!
2. Sign up or use Facebook to log in.
3. Use the search function for nonprofits and enter TechPoint Foundation for Youth.
4. Start giving to help underserved students participate in hands-on STEM programs!

We've made it easy to earmark your donation so you're supporting the causes that mean the most to you. You can choose to have your donation go toward:

Where Needed Most: this option allows us to put your money to work immediately to support the most pressing costs to TPF4Y.

US2020-STEM Mentor Movement: our US2020 initiative is helping to connect STEM professionals as volunteers with underserved students participating in high impact STEM programming.

Teacher Grants-EnablINg STEM in the Classroom: we grant teachers serving minority and low-income students up to $500 to help offset the costs of bringing cool, hands-on projects into the classroom.

Giving(Circle)Tuesday: by donating to our TPF4Y Giving Circle, you support our operating costs and, based on your donation level, receive votes allowing you to help choose the recipient of our annual $10,000 Giving Circle Grant.

We're excited to start using Givelify to collect donations - be sure you've downloaded it so you're ready to go for our #GivingTuesday event on December 1st!

Demonstration of the Givelify mobile giving app. Donate to the church, charity or cause of your choice in as few as three taps.

TechKnowTalk!

In partnership with DeveloperTown, TPF4Y hosted our first installment of TechKnowTalk, a quarterly speaker series that features a casual panel discussion, this time centered on what inspired some of our local entrepreneurs to pursue tech careers. 

We had some spectacular panelists lined up:

Jeb Banner
CEO & Co-Founder
Smallbox

Santiago Jaramillo
CEO & Founder
Bluebridge

Nate Canada
Associate Partner
DeveloperTown

Keith Kleinmaier
CEO
TenantTracker

Ilya Rekhter
CEO & Co-Founder
DoubleMap

We had an intimate crowd of about forty people, perfect for feeling like you're getting solid face time with the panelists. The evening started with some networking while noshing on pizza and beer, and then we kicked off the panel discussion around 6:45pm. 

Questions and answers ranged from what first sparked your interest in tech (breaking and subsequently being told to fix the family computer - Ilya Rekhtor) to how to inspire the next generation of tech pioneers ("The number one thing tech leaders and entrepreneurs need to do for the next generation is to be a role model and mentor" - Jeb Banner). We even learned a few fun facts, like how former gamer Nate Canada paid for a good portion of his college education with earnings he made playing video games.

Be sure to keep your eyes open for info about our next TechKnowTalk in January 2016!

US2020 Year 2 Kick-Off Party!

To start Year 2 of the US2020 initiative off on the right (socked) foot, we hosted a kick-off party at Eleven Fifty Academy, located in Scott Jones' mansion in Carmel. 

Eleven Fifty is a shoes-free facility so fun socks were strongly encouraged and luckily, our guests obliged!

Attendees included corporate, community, and program partners as well as many volunteers, both those returning from last year and some who are new to the initiative! We had appetizers and drinks (a special shout-out to Danny Boy Beer Works for donating the beer!) and lots of networking. 

John Vetter accepts the STEM Mentor of the Month award.

We recognized First Internet Bank for being a finalist in the national US2020 STEM Mentoring Awards for Excellence in Corporate Culture. The awards were given out at the US2020 STEM Mentoring Symposium at the White House Complex in Washington, D.C. at the end of July, but we wanted to have a local celebration for FIB as well. 

We were also able to recognize John Vetter and Scott Brookie, Interactive Intelligence employees who volunteered last year with a CoderDojo at Lincoln Middle School in Pike Township, for being recognized in June as national US2020 STEM Mentors of the Month. 

Current VISTA Courtney Perry, along with last year's VISTA members Caitlin Sheesley and Laura Green.

We are so grateful to our partners at Eleven Fifty Academy for generously opening their doors to host this event for us. Thank you to all who came to help us kick off Year 2 - we're so excited to continue to grow the number of STEM professionals serving as volunteers with high-impact programming!

Last, but certainly not least, a big thank you to our current and former AmeriCorps VISTA members for helping us to put on a great event for our deserving partners! We are so appreciative of their service with TPF4Y!

Shoes off, socks on & ready to head down the (mahogany) slide @elevenfifty for our #US2020indy year 2 kick off party! pic.twitter.com/rsURmF6a3Z

— TechPoint Foundation (@TechPointYouth) August 28, 2015

Girls + Robots = Fun!

On Saturday, August 22nd, a group of elementary and middle school girls headed downtown to the School of Informatics & Computing (SOIC) on IUPUI's campus to participate in an all-girls, FIRST LEGO League (FLL) robotics training.

The girls and their adult coaches started this half-day session all together for an FLL program overview and some highlights of the FLL Core Values. They then split into sections with coaches in one room and FLL-ers in another to continue their trainings.

While the coaches covered a technical training on programming and running the robots, the girls split into groups of 3 and paired up with high school robotics students. Each group went over the basics of building and programming a robot to run specific missions, and allowed all the FLL girls to get some hands-on experience with the robots. It also gave them an opportunity to learn about the FIRST program and hear from the high school girls about what it's like to be on an upper level robotics team, especially as a female student in an often predominantly male program.

After each team had practiced sending their robots on a few missions, it was time to take an IUPUI-led tour of the SOIC's Media Arts Research & Learning Arcade (MARLA) as well as the Advanced Visualization Lab. MARLA provides students access to a professional-level game studio and gallery for those interested in 2D and 3D game design and animation, while the Advanced Visualization Lab boasts high-resolution displays and projection-based virtual reality devices. Needless to say, the FLL-ers were beyond thrilled with the opportunity to explore and interact with all of this technology!

A big thanks to our high school girls who volunteered their Saturday to come and help the younger girls learn more about robotics! These high schoolers represented 3 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) teams: Carmel High School's FRC 868 TechHOUNDS, Western High School's FRC 292 PantherTech, and Southport High School's FRC 1529 CyberCards. 

We are lucky to have partnered with some great organizations to put on this all-girls FLL training. We had just as much fun as the girls themselves and look forward to a repeat event!

Thanks to the great organizations who planned and hosted this event:

First Internet Bank Recognized as National Finalist

Congratulations to founding #US2020indy corporate partner First Internet Bank on being recognized as the Finalist for the US2020 STEM Mentoring Award for Excellence in Corporate Culture! 

On July 23rd at the White House complex, US2020 announced the winners and finalists of the 2015 STEM Mentoring Awards – a competition launched earlier this year at the White House Science Fair. US2020 and co-founding sponsors Chevron and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), recognized these recipients for their exceptional work in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) mentoring. 

The STEM Mentoring Awards included the Most Innovative Hands-On Project, adjudicated by a panel of public and private sector leaders in STEM. They also included Excellence in Volunteer Experience and Excellence in Corporate Culture; two award categories that utilized qualitative and quantitative data gathered through US2020’s evaluation tools. 

For the inaugural STEM Mentoring Awards, US2020 received submissions from more than 80 organizations in 30 cities representing 13 states across the country. “We were thrilled and humbled by the number and quality of responses received,” said Nick Hutchinson, Executive Director of US2020. “Because of the support from Chevron and TCS, we’ve been able to surface exceptional work and ensure a focus on quality as US2020 and our partners work to scale the STEM Mentoring movement.” 

We are so proud of the work being done by First Internet Bank and their dedicated employees. Congrats again and keep up the good work!

US2020 City Network Gathers in D.C.

The #US2020CityNetwork walking through D.C.

The #US2020CityNetwork is a group of ten city-based coalitions, including Indianapolis, born from US2020's 2014 City Competition. As a Network, we come together approximately twice a year to accelerate each other's work during what we call Convenings, which are 2-3 day gatherings where representatives from each city are able to meet

in person to brainstorm ideas and challenges, receive updates from national partners, and recharge our momentum around increasing STEM mentoring.

City Network representatives from Allentown, PA; Philadelphia, PA; Baton Rouge, LA; Research Triangle Park, NC; Chicago, IL; San Francisco, CA; Indianapolis, IN; Wichita, KS; Bosten, MA pose outside the White House.

Last week, we gathered for our summer convening, which started Wednesday afternoon at the Discovery Communications headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, right outside of Washington, D.C. We discussed communication strategies around how best to tell the US2020 story to our audiences and ended the day at a State of the Network dinner, during which we heard from US2020 Executive Director Nick Hutchinson and Citizens Schools CEO Steven Rothstein.

Thursday featured a trip into D.C., where we spent the morning at the Corporation for National & Community Service, discussing our AmeriCorps VISTA members, and hearing from CNCS Chief of Staff Asim Mishra and AmeriCorps VISTA Director Paul Monteiro, among others.

That afternoon, we made our way over to the White House complex for the STEM Mentoring Symposium and Awards. The Symposium brought together leaders from the public, private, and social sectors to discuss common challenges, share best practices, and reaffirm STEM mentoring as a powerful tool for education reform.

Attendees at the STEM Mentoring Symposium & Awards.

The STEM Mentoring Awards recognized winners in the following categories for their exceptional work in STEM mentoring:

Most Innovative Hands-On Project

• Chicago Student Invention Convention
• University City Science Center FirstHand

Excellence in Volunteer Experience

• Iridescent
• We Teach Science

Excellence in Corporate Culture

• IBM
• NetApp
  * First Internet Back of Indiana was named a finalist in this category.

The 2015 winners of the STEM Mentoring Awards, presented by Chevron and Tata Consultancy Services.

The Awards ended on a high note with Megan Smith, Chief Technology Officer of the United States, saying that STEM needs tangible, teachable moments that are fun.

On Friday, our final day of the Convening, we met again at Discovery Communications to reflect on the symposium and awards and spend time diving into one of the City Network's biggest collective challenges during the pilot year, mentor engagement and recruitment. After discussing root causes and effects of the problem, we brainstormed solutions that could be implemented immediately, as well as some solutions that might take longer to realize.

The Convening was an overall success and we're already looking forward to gathering the City Network again in January!

Representatives of the City Network pose during a brainstorming session at Discovery Communications on the final day of the Convening.

Interactive Intelligence Volunteers Recognized Nationally!

We are so proud to announce that two Interactive Intelligence employees serving as US2020 volunteers have been recognized at the national level as STEM Mentors of the Month! Scott Brookie and John Vetter were featured in the US2020 summer enewsletter for their service as CoderDojo volunteers at Lincoln Middle School in Pike Township. Here is what we shared about their work as STEM volunteers:

“Scott and John took on the task of implementing the Coder Dojo program at Lincoln Middle School. They were very positive and showed great excitement in teaching students the fundamentals of coding. They applied their work experiences to the program so students could see, not just how much fun coding is, but how you can pursue a career in coding and get paid for doing something you may love!  Scott and John created lesson plans from scratch and, from my classroom visits, I saw that they did an excellent job presenting material to the students in a way that is kid-friendly yet relatable to the subject. These lessons were carefully crafted and both mentors took time outside of their mentoring hours to research coding games for the students. They showed excitement in future plans for this program, which exhibits how dedicated they are. Scott and John work great together as a team and were both very passionate about giving students the opportunity to learn how to code. They have been an excellent example of the hands-on and high impact mentoring we like to see in US2020 mentors.”

Congratulations and keep up the good work!

New TPF4Y Team Member!

When she’s not volunteering at the Broad Ripple Farmers Market, chasing squirrels with her dog Lady, or enjoying tacos at La Chinita Poblana, Courtney Perry will be the newest AmeriCorps VISTA member at TPF4Y serving as the US2020 School & Program Coordinator.

Originally from Vermont, Courtney drove to Indianapolis just 2 weeks after graduating from Boston University in May of 2014. After a bumpy first week that involved living in a Motel 6 and eating lots of goldfish crackers while her housing paperwork was being processed, she served as a VISTA member at AYS, Inc., taking on the responsibility of strengthening the services they offer to low-income families. At AYS, Courtney did a lot of data collection and research projects focused on afterschool programming, which perfectly prepared her for her new US2020 role at TPF4Y.

Courtney's dog Lady relaxes in the sun.

As the US2020 School & Program Coordinator, Courtney will serve at the liaison between the volunteers and the schools and Boys & Girls Clubs where they’re involved. She’ll be in charge of successfully onboarding new volunteers by introducing them to the school space, facilitator, students, and STEM programs, and will also head up evaluation procedures and data management.

Courtney was drawn to VISTA service through experiences with community service in college. She spent her freshman year spring break at a Habitat for Humanity build site in Seattle, WA, and, after meeting the HabiCorps member in charge of the site, knew that she wanted to join AmeriCorps after graduation. Adding a second year of VISTA service will allow Courtney to gain additional experience in the area of nonprofit management, which is what she hopes to do in the future. She’ll be starting classes at SPEA at IUPUI in the fall to complete a graduate certificate in nonprofit management (and may eventually consider going for the full MPA!).

Courtney and her finance Mark.

Traveling has added to Courtney’s array of experiences, with opportunities to study abroad in India for a year in high school and then again in Germany for a semester in college. She’s also visited multiple places in Europe and the continental U.S. In her free time, Courtney enjoys cooking, reading, and running, and people are often surprised by her love of country music. She and her fiance recently moved to Broad Ripple and, along with Lady, are taking full advantage of all the area has to offer.

Please help us welcome Courtney to the team – we are so excited to have her with us!

TPF4Y Maker Meet-Up!

TPF4Y is currently in the process of exploring the maker movement in the state of Indiana in order to better understand how it is, can, or should impact students in K-12 education. In connecting with these maker spaces, we hope to identify thought leaders who share our passion for inspiring underserved students through hands-on, experiential learning opportunities.

On May 14th, we hosted an island-themed meet-up for a group of about 40 people either currently connected to, or in the process of brainstorming, a maker space. The agenda included presentations on four maker spaces around the state, as well as small group discussions on the topics of K-12 and community engagement, challenges and successes, programs and audience, and sustainability and funding. The topics sparked excellent dialogue and we were pleased with the ideas and feedback that were collected.

A few of our guests representing maker spaces at the meeting included:

1. 1st Maker Space / 3D Parts Manufacturing 
2. Club Cyberia
3. Dreamapolis
4. Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville (GAGE)
5. Herron School of Art + Design
6. Indianapolis Public Library / The Learning Curve
7. Indy 3D Printing
8. Indy's Kitchen
9. Ivy Tech Community College
10. Lafayettech
11. MatchBOX
12. Ruckus
13. School of Informatics & Computing - IUPUI
14. Velocity Indiana

Do you know of a maker space in Indiana that is either up and running or still in the brainstorming phase? Connect us with them - send us an email at Info@TechPointYouth.org!

VISTA PD Day o'Fun!

As our three VISTA members draw closer to the end of their service terms (*sob), we thought a professional development day, mixed with a bit of fun, was just the ticket to round out the busy month of May. So, on Friday the 22nd, we had the VISTAs show up bright and early at DeveloperTown in comfy clothes with their walking shoes laced up.

We started the day with a walk on the Monon Trail into Broad Ripple, where we grabbed coffee and completed performance appraisal surveys, an etiquette quiz, and a time management worksheet. We then sat outside in the sunshine to discuss the results of our efforts, covering professional strengths and weaknesses, going over etiquette do's and don'ts, and setting goals around some of our toughest time wasters. Lunch on the patio at the Broad Ripple Brew Pub rounded out our excursion and we walked back to the office to finish the day with an M&M game centered on goal setting, and relaxing with a most beloved board game: Ticket to Ride.

Want to know a little more about our team? Here are some of the tidbits we gleaned from our M&M game...

Caitlin

• Dream Job: Ethnographer 
• Professional Strength: Organized
• Adjective That Describes You: Creative
• Professional You Admire: Brandon Sorge (SERI @ IUPUI)

Laura G.

• Dream Job: Music Therapist
• Professional Strength: Team Player
• Adjective That Describes You: Pleasant
• Professional You Admire: Oprah Winfrey

Natalie

• Dream Job: Fashionista
• Professional Strength: Timely
• Adjective That Describes You: Friendly
• Professional You Admire: Laura Dodds

TPF4Y Wins VISTA Award!

We are honored to announce that TechPoint Foundation for Youth has been named this year's Indiana VISTA Program of Distinction! Louis Lopez, State Program Director for the Corporation for National & Community Service, presented us with the award at the April 23rd US2020 Guiding Coalition meeting in front of more than thirty of our US2020 partners. 

"TechPoint Foundation has distinguished itself among the best of Indiana's AmeriCorps VISTA programs as a leader in carrying out the important work of the White House-supported US2020 initiative," Lopez said. "The Foundation has demonstrated excellence as one of the first out of seven US2020 cities selected nationally to engage three outstanding VISTA members in implementing the critical mission of connecting STEM professionals to STEM mentoring opportunities."

This has been the first year that TPF4Y has hosted AmeriCorps VISTA members as part of our work on the US2020 initiative in the city of Indianapolis. Our three current VISTAs are smart, resourceful, and hardworking self-starters and we are beyond grateful for their tireless work during the pilot year of this initiative. We will be welcoming two new VISTAs to our team this summer, and while we have already selected a candidate for our School & Program Coordinator position, we are still recruiting to fill the Corporate & Community Coordinator position! If you know of anyone who might be interested in filling this role and gaining a year's worth of excellent experience, please send them our way!

Girl Develop It Brings Tech Skills to Indianapolis

We caught up with Lindsay Siovaila, co-founder of the Indianapolis Girl Develop It chapter to find out more about the organization and get advice from a woman in the coding world. Lindsay is a Senior Solutions Developer at Salesforce where she helps build tools and processes that help the Sales team demo their software. She worked with her friends Erica and Virginie to bring a chapter to Indianapolis after noticing that there were quite a few Girl Develop It chapters scattered throughout the Midwest (Chicago, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Cincinnati, and Cleveland), but not in their city. Lindsay explains:

“I first heard about Girl Develop It in 2014 via some blogs I read online that discussed the gender gap in the tech world and various efforts that have been going on to help bring more women and minorities into the tech world. I have always been interested in giving back to the community by teaching and tutoring, and Girl Develop It appealed to me since it was a chance to teach valuable tech skills to people who are curious about web development but don't really have a community or background in tech.”

GDI’s target audience is women who want to begin exploring web development or continue learning web development, but anyone is welcome to attend the classes and events. They welcome all skill levels and encourage questions! We asked Lindsay if she could offer a little advice for a total beginner who just wants to get started, and she shared a few pointers:

1. Online resources are a great place to start, “but the real learning happens when you’re working on a real project and have a real problem to solve.” Think of a simple project, like a website showcasing your photography or favorite recipes, and then put your knowledge to use developing that project.
2. Find a mentor that you’re comfortable with and who is further down the road in experience. Then ask them LOTS of questions. “One secret you might not know about developers is that we are all learning from someone else at some point - no one is the master of any topic, and we are all dependent on each other for help when we get stuck.
3. Making mistakes is part of the learning process and is completely normal! A lot of time on real development projects is spent working out all the kinks in the code, so being comfortable finding errors or logic flaws is integral!

As far as the future goes, Lindsay wants to see Girl Develop It become a place where women can feel empowered to learn web development, and then use those skills to impact the community in a meaningful way. Another passion of Lindsay’s is the idea of passing on the skills women learn from GDI. She hopes that by offering these classes it will create new teachers and mentors for the future. Ultimately, the industry will become stronger with more women in tech and web development roles.

Be sure to follow Girl Develop It on Twitter, like them on Facebook, and, most importantly, sign up for an event on their MeetUp page!

Women in STEM: Gail Farnsley

In honor of Women's History Month, we sat down with TPF4Y board member Gail Farnsley to talk about her career, which began with programming and computer science and has shifted and grown through jobs both in the U.S. and abroad, to advising corporate IT leadership. She is currently an Executive Partner with Gartner, working with CIOs and other executive clients as a trusted advisor to provide expertise and guidance to help them achieve their business objectives. 

"I think the most important thing is to find something you are interested in," said Gail, when asked what advice she has for girls following in her footsteps. "I didn't set out to do this job; in fact, I am sure I had no idea jobs like this existed." 

Encouraged by a high school math teach who taught a programming class she liked, Gail got a degree in computer science. She had always liked puzzles and programming was like one giant puzzle, allowing her to figure out how to get the computer to do what she wanted it to do. After a few years as a programmer, she moved on to designing programs, and from there started designing whole systems, not just individual applications. And with a more well-rounded view of the business side of things, she eventually moved into management, something she never thought she would end up doing.

"I would also advise being open to new opportunities," Gail continued, "things you might have never guessed you would like. I never had a plan that I would run IT for a company or even be a manager, but I focused on doing a great job in the role I had, and all those other opportunities opened up for me."

And what memorable opportunities they were. As an analyst at Emery Air Freight, Gail traveled to Europe for two weeks to meet with the leaders of their offices in France, Germany, and the UK to demo software for a new pricing system. As it turned out, she was in the UK on July 13, 1985, and was able to attend the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium in person, a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As a project leader at Georgia-Pacific, Gail had a chance to work with their TV studio, where they needed to select software to keep track of all the work they did. She was chosen to go to Hollywood to visit a company that had developed a software tool that met their needs. When Gail first started with Cummins, she was working with their international distributors to implement new systems before Y2K. She traveled to Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo, and Europe to work with those distributors to ensure the software would be able to support their systems. Gail's job with Cummins also afforded her the opportunity to live in the UK for two and a half years, where she was responsible for IT for all operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. 

Interestingly, Gail did not have many women who served as role models for her during her career.

"I think that is probably because when I was coming up through the ranks in IT, there were very few women in front of me," Gail speculates.

Luckily, she had some terrific male role models and mentors who pushed and encouraged her. All aspiring STEM students could use the helping hand, be it a man's or woman's, of a STEM mentor. Sign up with our US2020 initiative today and begin making a difference in the lives of Indianapolis students. You never know, you could be helping them towards the same inspiring career Gail has had.