"Why would you even do anything for free"

"Why would you even do anything for free" - I get asked a lot about this and so do my peer volunteers.?

Less than 3 years ago, #STEAMforVietnam was an unknown non-profit chanting about the mission of bringing world-class STEAM education to Vietnamese students for free. We know what "world-class" means and all outsiders are rightfully skeptical about the message.?

Our beginning?

We started with a course to promote Computational thinking using Scratch - a programming language for kids that is not so common in Vietnam (although there are 42 million+ Scratch users who are kids from 12 years old, as of 2022). Until 2023, we've successfully launched 8 semesters not only about Scratch but Python, Robotics and Arts, served 45.000+ Vietnamese students in 33+ countries.?

Our courses are crafted and taught by top-notch Vietnamese Educators and Engineers working for big corps in the U.S, Singapore and more (like Amazon, Google...). But why would we call ourselves world-class, if we can't see how competative our students are when being on the same stages with kids from developed countries. That's when "A year of Robotics" initiative was born.?

VEX Robotics Worlds Championship?

Our first nationwide project was the STEAM Bus across Vietnam, visiting 5 different cities and provinces including Ha Giang and Ca Mau. There were kids who didn't even see a single computer in their lives, got to play with the advanced VEX IQ Robots, and were introduced to the concept of Computer science for the very first time.?

Then came the National Robotics Championship 2022, which was a Scrimmage with a perfectly molded format from VEX Robotics World Championship - The biggest Robotics Championship on the planet. We humbly estimated that there would be 16 teams to participate, but the actual number was 49 - 3 times more! That says a lot about how unaware we (adults) are of how talented and enthusiastic Vietnamese students are towards Science in general and Robotics specifically. In this event, we were able to work with prestigious partners like HUST, VinUniversity, the American Center (part of the U.S Embassy)...?

The result gave us more confidence to host the National Robotics Championship 2023 - which is officially registered to VEX Robotics World Championship as the elimination round before the World Championship. This time, 150 teams showed up, and 19 were qualified to join the World Championship. Just to be clear, this is the first time this biggest Robotics Championship has representatives from Vietnam! We received suggestions here and there, that we should keep the scale down, to maybe 3-5 teams, as this is the whole trip aboard. There are budget constraints, workforce constraints, and many else that you all can imagine when bringing 100+ kids outside of their country, not to mention accompanied parents, school teachers…? But we don’t back off, that’s just not kind of our thing at STEAM for Vietnam: we don’t back off, we figure things out.?

Eventually, we flew this whole bunch of people to Texas early this month for the Championship. While the students were busy preparing, our volunteers on the other side of the globe were working days and nights for a big surprise - a U.S tour, that brought the students to visit Google Headquarters, Stanford Campus, The Tech Museum, a dinner with a Nasa astronaut, and many other side activities.?

We expected this to be an experiencing experience because we don’t want our kids to be too under pressure to enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime chance. But I guess our students are just like us volunteers at STEAM for Vietnam: we go big or go home. 7/19 of the teams made their way to the Top 10, and 5 of them won some kind of awards. For the record, the total numbers of participating teams were 1.000+ from 50 different countries; adding up to a total of 30.000 students! Tell me what else this is if not called a HISTORY!?

“Train the trainers”

Winning at the VEX Robotics World Championship is our biggest achievement so far, for now.?

We know our children can do way better if mentored and supervised properly. We also know there are adults who are also curious about how STEAM for Vietnam taught/ trained our students and are passionate to be part of the movement. And we are happy to share. The more STEAM teachers/ trainers/ mentors/ coaches, the more opportunities for our young generation to reach their full potential and breakthrough (what they think to be) their limits.

So we are teaming up with the Scratch Foundation to introduce the first time ever - a world-class training program for Vietnamese adults on STEAM education. Participants will know our recipes for our students’ success (philosophy, teaching methods, materials, etc.). They’ll also be supported to customize their own lesson plan for their local students and will be assisted to implement their own offline STEAM classes.????

Just imagine, we are going to train the first 500 trainers, and each of them is going to deliver world-class STEAM education to at least 10 students, even those in the most underserved regions! How many more young Vietnamese talents will be nurtured and nourished to make bigger world history? That’s what we call the “spillover educational effect”.?

As the Project manager for this “Train the Trainers” project, I’m so proud and excited to see its impact. I’m also eager to explore any collaboration opportunities from my precious network in terms of funding, co-hosting the program, co-designing the curriculum…

If you’re interested, or just want to be posted on any updates, ping me!

I guess this is an extra response to the question at the beginning. Let me make it short.?

“Why would you do anything for free?” - Because I can see how much my free work impacts other people’s lives!