Commitment Level: 3 - 15 hours per week (varies based on role)

Volunteers Needed Per Shift: No limit

Skills: Love children, work creatively and follow directions and leadership

Help Minority Youth Become STEM Leaders with KodeConnect!

Our volunteers help shape the new generation of makers and builders. If you love kids as much as well do, we welcome you to apply to volunteer directly with KodeConnect youth through one or more of our programs. Short and long-term volunteer opportunities are available! Program volunteers engage youth in STEM education and activities: helping bridge the achievement gap among minority groups in STEM education and employment with every child served. 

KodeConnect Programming:

Expose - According to the Department of Education, “research shows that early exposure to STEM has positive impacts across the entire spectrum of learning. For example, early math knowledge not only predicts later math success, but it also predicts later reading achievement (National Research Council, 2012)."  Despite this, many schools and early childhood programs in underserved areas lack the resources and capacity to focus on early STEM learning in developmentally appropriate ways.  KodeConnect, Inc knows that early exposure to STEM principles will be a predictor of future math and reading success.  Therefore, we focus our youngest participants on the Expose track where they can have early interaction with STEM and coding activities.  Our Hour of Kode is a great example of community outreach where our KodeConnect Volunteers spend an hour with kids and their parents in an interactive demonstration of the principles of coding (K-3rd). 

Engage- The lack of racial and gender diversity in science, technology, engineering, and math fields is not a secret.  KodeConnect bridges the race and gender gap in STEM by providing high-quality, engaging programming for kids ranging in grades from 3rd to 8th.   Whether we are programming robots for an “Olympic competition” or learning a new code, we are engaging with these kids in a meaningful way at a crucial moment in their academic and cognitive development.  This engagement leads to increased self-confidence and a broader knowledge base.   

Envision -  Entrepreneurial education is the way of the future.  Entrepreneurship education aids students from all socioeconomic backgrounds to think outside the box and nurture unconventional talents and skills. It creates opportunities, ensures social justice, instills confidence, and stimulates the economy.  That is why KodeConnect developed its Pathway Academy for middle school-aged innovators.  In this offering, kids are selected to learn from our curriculum that combines STEM education with an entrepreneurial approach to solving problems.  We offer this program both in an intensive form—ie. 2-3 weeks in a camp format-  as well as long-form – ie 4-8 months in an after-school format.  Our goal is that the innovators who complete this program can envision themselves as leaders and innovators in STEM-related careers.  As we work to close the race and gender gap in tech, a future with a more fair and equitable workforce becomes achievable (middle school).

K-SEA - K-SEA will be a long-term (October- May) coding and entrepreneurship-based course that is designed under the pedagogy of experiential learning. This course will be offered at little to no cost to middle school-aged participants and will culminate in a pitch contest ("shark tank" style) and a video game design prototype presentation. Throughout the program, we will host speakers from various STEM professions to share their experiences with the kids. We will also align each group with mentors who will follow the kids for the duration (6th-8th grade).

Characteristics and Capabilities of Great Program Volunteers: 

Simplicity: clearly define your learning goals for students to set their expectations and present complex ideas in small easy-to-understand chunks

Flexibility: kids will have all different learning preferences (watching a demo video, hands-on, etc) and a nimble teacher can differentiate instructions for anyone who might be struggling

Empathy: build a rapport with your students by listening actively and asking them questions frequently

Relevancy: share with your students why what they’re learning is important and how it relates to current lives and prospective futures

Felicity: ok, it’s an old-fashioned word, but happiness is infectious!

To Apply:

​Prior to clicking the “signup to apply now” button, please download the attachments that you see under the “documents” tab. These documents include forms that need to be reviewed, signed, and submitted as part of your application. Also, you will see a list of specific program volunteer roles and responsibilities. Please review these roles prior to applying. The application will allow you to select which specific role(s) you are interested in. 

We look forward to having such a wonderful individual like yourself join our dedicated and passionate team of social change leaders in STEM education!