A Davis Foundations Projects for Peace grant funded our four-week engineering and arts summer camp for 136 mostly immigrant and underrepresented students.
By building relationships with educators, city, and community leaders, we successfully incorporated our STEAM program into the annual 12-week summer day camp that the City of Miami Beach provides at no cost to students qualifying for federal free school lunch. Students play and create through our lessons, making learning fun while reinforcing skills they need to improve and build confidence. Our bilingual camp volunteers work one-on-one with younger students and develop their own leadership and STEM skills. Some of our students have gone on to selective colleges, while our younger students have improved test scores, gained confidence to study math and science, and most importantly see a bright future.
Results from a survey of students participating in our four-week summer camp showed:
Three out of four students (75%) said they like science more.
Eight out of ten (80%) felt confident in what they've learned to teach someone else.
Camp participants, surveyed the first and last day, recorded a 22% jump in the response "I enjoy being in school."
Camp participants, surveyed the first and last day, recorded a 81% jump in the response "I am interested in STEAM."
Nine out of ten students (93%) said they want to do our program again next summer.
