Our Crowdfunding Groups
Under normal conditions, the RPI Engineering Ambassadors (EAs) visit students from kindergarten to 12th grade to showcase various engineering marvels through presentations and hands-on design challenges. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot physically present at the schools safely. However, we are doing our best to continue doing our duty as the Engineering Ambassadors to grow even further! So far this year, we’ve redesigned our operations to mesh with this virtual world, and we have already worked on many projects. This past fall semester, we virtually worked with the Rise High STEM Program, East Greenbush Columbia High School, Algonquin Middle School, and more! We’ve also partnered with the Rensselaer Admissions office to hold virtual public Q&A sessions where high school students asked the EAs questions about their engineering experience and life at college to help draw more people toward engineering and Rensselaer as a whole.
For safety, presentations are done virtually. The virtual environment proves to be a challenge when teaching engineering ideas through creative, fun, physical hands-on activities, which are a core part of our program. As a result, for some projects, we decided to deliver materials to the school prior to the presentation, so our virtual presentation includes both an introduction to the topic and a physical design activity for the students.
We hope to help and reach students of many different backgrounds who most likely do not have the opportunity to learn about different engineering concepts. Our project in the Bronx will be a six-week Virtual Engineering After-School Fair at St. Raymond’s Academy for Boys and Girls. The virtual fair will give students the opportunity to learn and apply beginner Arduino coding and circuitry knowledge to develop their own projects with the virtual assistance of EA’s. Through this visit, we also hope to continue the partnership we have already established with St. Raymond’s in the past four years, paving the way for future visits and partnership.
What You're Supporting
We hope to continue to spread our message, Find Your Passion and Engineer It, by inspiring students of various backgrounds to explore engineering and its applications from an exciting and intuitive approach. Particularly for schools that lack the resources and materials to explore engineering, our goal is to provide the materials and guidance to spark the creativity and to engage the bright students from all backgrounds.
Donated funds will help support the Engineering Ambassadors’ materials and trip expenditures to the Bronx. This is to build a framework for working safely with various schools without putting the Engineering Ambassadors, students, teachers, and more at risk during this COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of the funding is needed for travel and material consumption. We hope you will consider supporting us in our mission to inspire a younger audience for those who most likely do not have the role models in their lives to encourage a rewarding career in engineering!
Who We Are
The RPI Engineering Ambassadors was created in the spring of 2011, and has had over 120 ambassadors take part in the organization's activities over the years. Since its inception, the RPI Engineering Ambassadors have reached over 30,000 students in the immediate area and beyond. We achieve our mission by presenting engineering topics directly to students at their schools. Each presentation has an accompanying hands-on activity to drive home the STEM topics discussed in the presentation. Our organization is also very involved with events that promote STEM on campus, including FIRST LEGO League, National Manufacturing Day, Exploring Engineering Day, and many more.
