New Beginning
In the first few weeks of development,
AmSTEA leadership board members have
made substantial progress.
Members meeting on July 10th, 2022
by Jocelyn Tsai
After discovering the lack of STEAM literacy within primary school students throughout the United States, Bill Crampton established AmSTEA (American Science and Technology Education Association), a nonprofit targeted towards teachers in order to further their knowledge in STEAM. By creating this nonprofit, Crampton hoped to improve primary school teachers’ ability to teach STEAM subjects to their students. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it became difficult to execute the plans of the nonprofit.
With the organization left untouched for 2 years, Christina Zhang, Crampton’s daughter, decided to establish a student branch for AmSTEA. With this student branch, Zhang aims to “build a community with talented individuals…[to] promote STEAM [and]...spark ideas.” Holding on to this idea, Zhang assembled a leadership board which includes: Vanessa Man, Maggie Qi, Jocelyn Tsai, Victor Hong, Amber Yeu, Annabelle Kong, Edward Yang, Kuan Fu, Eric Zhu, and Evan Zhong. Together, this group of talented high-school students embark on a mission to provide valuable leadership experiences, entertainment, and offer youth a chance to take initiative in their STEAM passions. Essentially, the organization emphasizes the art aspect of STEAM through endeavors such as art, video production, and writing to convey STEAM concepts and ideas to their audience. Zhang believes that this combination of science and humanities “expands our perspective” because it shows how the different aspects of STEAM can connect to create something great.
Meeting on July 8th
For the past 4 weeks, the leadership board has come together and worked hard to create the foundation of this organization, including its website and different video projects. Throughout the process, there have been challenges in gathering funds for website maintenance, organizing a video production process, and “establishing the organization itself,” Vanessa Man explains. Man believes that although there is more freedom when forming an organization outside of school, “there are hardly any guidelines for us…we have to build everything based on our knowledge and establish our own structure.” Despite these challenges, the leadership board has continued to persevere and is working toward the goals they established together. Through their experience so far, members have been able to learn valuable communication, technical,
and leadership skills, while also gaining experience in certain aspects of video production, scriptwriting, and editorial work. Members are building substantial knowledge about the STEAM topics covered in videos, which keeps each project novel and interesting. Zhang believes that “as long as we take it step by step, we will achieve what we want.”
In the future, the leadership board hopes to construct a strong community that is passionate about STEAM. They hope that when others see them, they also become inspired to act on their own passions and ideas. Man describes the team with one word: “youth”. She uses this word “not only because we are all high schoolers, but [also because of] the creativity, energy, and positivity that our team has.” The organization recognizes the importance of increasing STEAM literacy in the younger generations, and the team is ready to overcome any obstacles that might stand in their path.