Photo provided Columbus Robotics participants put together STEM kits for students to use in Pune, India.
Columbus Robotics has expanded its mission to an international outreach.
In the words of mentor Gayatri Adi, the mission of Columbus Robotics is to provide “STEM inspiration” for students and recently, they provided that inspiration to children in Pune, India.
Adi and her husband, Jonathon Gifford, who is also a Columbus Robotics mentor, visited India over the holidays to deliver STEM activities to underprivileged children being served by the Revati Nyaan Foundation. In addition to putting these activities together, Columbus Robotics students and families also raised $1,800 for the educational nonprofit.
The Revati Nyaan Foundation was created by Adi’s cousin, Revati Bhamare. According to Adi, the word “nyann” means knowledge.
“During the pandemic, when most things went virtual, there were a lot of under-resourced children in India that didn’t have access to virtual education, primarily because they didn’t have the devices,” said Adi. “And so her (Bhamare’s) house help, the lady who would come to her house for some chores, for some tasks — she asked if she could help, and Revati asked her to bring the kids along, and she started teaching them or working with them through schoolwork and such that they were missing. And then they started bringing their friends and neighbors, and it just grew.”
People wanted to donate to Bhamare to help her pay teachers and serve students, so she registered as a nonprofit.
Now, six days out of the week, 60 to 70 students come to her in the morning before school, which takes place in the afternoon. Bhamare’s offerings include computer classes, math, science and English. Most of the children are in grades six through nine, but there are also some 10th through 12th graders.
“A few of them had to drop out of school because of financial conditions, so she’s trying to help them get back enrolled, motivate them to enroll back in school,” said Adi. “And with these computer classes, the goal is that these students will take a state-level computer, science, and IT certification exam so that once they’re done with 12th grade and have that certification, they have a better chance of getting a good job.”
Adi was aware of her cousin’s foundation, and Columbus Robotics students wanted to contribute to its work. Since she and Gifford were already going to India for a short trip, they were able to meet with Bhamare and her students on Christmas Day to deliver two activities made by Columbus Robotics students and parents. The first was a set of kits for building light-up Christmas cards. The second was a device for launching paper rockets, which was created by 11th grade student Cooper Hawkins and his father.
The paper rocket launcher was very popular, said Adi. Students from the Revati Nyann Foundation were able to build paper rockets and have fun while also learning about aerodynamics and science.
All in all, the foundation had “one of the most engaged student crowds that we’ve ever had for a STEM activity,” organizers said.
Adi added that Columbus Robotics will look for more opportunities to fundraise for the nonprofit and might also continue the partnership by creating YouTube videos, mailing materials to India and making more in-person trips.
“The mission of Columbus Robotics is STEM inspiration,” she said. “We’ve typically only been able to do that in our local community, so this was an opportunity for us to do that outside of our community, and especially where there is a lot of need. So my hope, really, is that we achieve that, they would want to do some more science projects like this. They seemed very excited about continuing to do it. So that’s really the goal here is just to provide something fun that keeps them motivated to do science and math. I think experiential learning is the key.”
