Creators: Whitney Hansberry, Vish Swami
Over the semester, students from Prof. Schulte-Grahame’s class put in service hours at both the Clubhouse Network in Roxbury and Beachmont Elementary School’s STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) Club.
Isobelle Lim (pictured above), one of the lead mentors at Beachmont who attended the club every other week, said this when reflecting on her last shift there, “As a lead mentor, I had been to the STEAM Club 4 times already; enough times that one group of girls had grown particularly fond of me and were excited to see me the moment I walked in! Though I set my things at the back of the table, they kept motioning for me to sit at their table so they can talk to me, and they genuinely remembered things I told them previously in other weeks, as did I for them! When I told them that was my last time being there, they were sad.”
At the Clubhouse, many students utilized the many kinds of technology and machinery to create different physical artifacts. They would work with members from the Clubhouse, learning from and teaching them as they created. Pictured below are three of those artifacts from three students. The each had this to say: Kaitlyn Lowery, clay pot: “After a long, semi-stressful day, I came to the clubhouse excited to find something that I could find enjoyable and relaxing. When I learned that they had clay in the back, I got super excited because I was reminded of my forth grade teacher who used to encourage us to back handheld pinch-pots when we had a spare bit of time. So I made this pot meticulously to give to a friend back home so that he could keep it and remember me throughout college. As for the clubhouse, I enjoyed all of my time there; the staff and the participants were always lovely, and I was never limited with what I wanted to do because the clubhouse had everything I ever wanted to do inside of it.” Spenser Dewey, 3D printed husky: “The artifact I gained from the Clubhouse this time was a small 3D-printed Siberian Husky. This included the new skill of learning how to 3D print objects, since I had no prior experience. In part, I did this so that I could learn how the 3D printer worked in case a student at the Clubhouse wanted to know, and now I can be prepared for that kind of question.” Daniel Wang, 3D printed icosahedron: “[This] was my first hands-on experience with 3D printing and I got to look through a bunch of different designs that they’ve printed previously as well as familiarizing myself with the software. I tried being a bit creative by combining a couple of shapes together and in the end, I feel like I’ve created a satisfactory product.”