Events

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Notre Dame alumni sponsored this session and members from the Notre Dame Men's lacrosse team volunteered to assemble the STEMand kits. The Boys & Girls Club staff in South Bend led a program with 140 children in Dec 2024!  We were thrilled that the Boys & Girls club director loved the event.

"The event was so great.  We would LOVE to do this again in the future. It was such a great experience for the kids and our staff. I'd be more than happy to share with more Boys & Girls Clubs" - Ashley

JaxTHRIVE was our first partner where we did our first pilot in April 2024. It was a success!! We were asked to come back starting in the fall of 2024 to do more regular programs with the 30-50 amazing kids who are refugees from all over world!  Click here to learn about each visit STEMand has made.

"Our JaxTHRIVE refugee students always look forward to Anaka's STEMand program. The projects are original, creative and fun! I really appreciate Anaka and her team" Betsy (Executive Director)  

We are so excited that STEMand expanded internationally just 3 months after our first pilot program with JaxTHRIVE in Jacksonville, FL! Members from Christ Church in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL went to Bolivia in July 2024. We provided 160 STEMand kits for 80 abused, abandoned or orphaned children living in the Children's Village in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Alex Zurlinden and Julia Stephens led the two activities in partnership with Amistad Mission who runs this amazing facility.

Starting in the fall of 2024, STEMand developed  a partnership with the St. Augustine Homeless Coalition where we do a new STEMand kit and activity approximately each month with the wonderful children currently living there! Please reach out to anakastemand@gmail.com if you would like to come volunteer with us. The address is 62 Chapin St, St. Augustine, FL 32082. Click here to learn about each visit STEMand made.

Please sign up to be a volunteer at STEMand sessions using the Sign Up Genius: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A44AEAD29A2FEC43-54764597-stemand

On May 4th, 2024 STEMand hosted it's first fundraising event which occured at Fort Family Regional Parks! Various members of the community came together to play pickleball and raise money! In total STEMand was able to raise just over $400 which exceeded our goal! Thank you to everyone who came out and supported us. Some of those funds allowed us to donate 160 STEMand kits to the Amistad Mission in Bolivia. Thank you!! Click here to see more pictures!

STEMand will continue to visit the St. Augustine Homeless Coalition once a month where we use a new STEMand kit each month with the wonderful children currently living there Please reach out to anakastemand@gmail.com if you would like to come volunteer with us. The address is 62 Chapin St, St. Augustine, FL 32082.  The up-coming dates for the 2025 spring semester are February 19th, March 19th, April 9th, and April 23rd.

STEMand will  teach a monthly science rotation at JaxTHRIVE'S Super Saturdays when they partner with Kim's Open Door. The plan is to pair the STEMand kit with whatever additional activity the children do during their other rotations. Please reach out to anakastemand@gmail.com if you would like to come volunteer with us and help teach. The address is  4000 Spring Park Rd Jacksonville, FL 32207.

We will be hosting another corporate team building event with The Connect Agency. We look forward to partnering with this great company. 

On Saturday, April 5th at Fort Family Regional Park STEMand will be hosting its second pickleball tournament to raise funds for our local Jacksonville sessions and the STEM kits that will be going to AMISTAD in Bolivia. Bring your pickleball rackets and a partner! Drinks and snacks will be provided. 

Location:8000 Baymeadows Rd E, Jacksonville, FL 32256

Time: 3PM-6PM 

Fee: 20$ per person

A group of college students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will come together to package STEM kits in early April to be distributed to a local Boys and Girls Club in Wake County. 

A group of students from the University of Notre Dame will come together to package STEM kits in early April to be distributed to a local Boys and Girls Club in South Bend. These members of a Notre Dame hall will lead a STEM session with these kits at the Boys and Girls Club

On May 8th, a Boys and Girls Club of Middle Tennessee will hold a STEM session for fifty children! The kits will be packaged and taught by a team of Vanderbilt college students.