Venture Description: We provide FREE science camps for "at risk" girls ages 4 - 10 to encourage early science education. Our focus on "at risk" girls is because we feel that science can be a ticket out of poverty for those girls. We want to change girls attitudes ABOUT science as well as the world's perception about girls IN science.

Venture Origin: At ten I attended my first space camp and became passionate about becoming an astronaut. Other girls gave me the "thats a boy's job" attitude. I decided girls needed earlier exposure to science to know how cool it was. I developed my first science camp, ASTROTOTS, in my back yard and now encourage girls all over the world to reach for the stars.

Innovation: We use girls curiosity, creativity and imaginations to impact their learning. Girls are very "hand on" when they are young and so our our activities. By tossing chocolate chips into pudding they learn how craters are made; making Martian landscapes they learn about iron making Mars red. They are already scientists in things they do every day - we just teach them why.

Impact

Impact: We have worked with over a thousand girls. One hundred new teen volunteers now know the joy that comes from giving of themselves. With our Campers to Leaders program, campers are now helping lead and teach girls in the camps they once attended.We also teach the parents of our campers how to point out the scientific things their girls do every day. I feel that every girl who attends our camps comes away thinking "I'm a Scientist.

Engagement with the community: Our completely youth driven venture requires 10-15 teen volunteers every camp. We currently have a waiting list of teen girls wanting to volunteer at our camps. We have used over 100 youth volunteers to date. Local mayors, etc. shoot of the model rocket at the close of camp. Utah Childrens Museum has a permanant panel about AstroTots on display to encourage other kids to get involved in service.

Impact and engagement progress since launch: My camps started out in my backyard. We now do them at community centers all around the country and have recently received funding to go global. I have gone from begging my friends to come help to having a waiting list of girls who want to volunteer. When we have open registration (for girls not "at risk") we turn away over 100 girls almost every camp.

Impact and engagement strategy: When we have to turn girls away you begin to plan how to work on a bigger scale. When working with such little girls, safety is a big issue and right now we keep the camps to 25 girls per camp. We are working on ways to serve more girls (maybe up to 100) at a time and still be able to keep the girls safe and under control. It would help us also use more girls who want to volunteer.

Awards: American Eagle Live Your Life Award, Disney Adventures All-Star, Featured in PEOPLE Magazine, spoke at George Bush's Inauguration, Kmart Class Act,etc

Budget

Amount of Youth Venture seed grant: $1,000.00

Money raised: $45,000 - most of the funding has come from donations and prize money from awards.

Creative ways of raising resources: This is a little goofy, but it really helped us in the beginning. Our team had our parents use $20.00 gift card perscription transfer coupons when they needed to fill perscriptions. We would then use those gift cards to purchase the supplies we needed for camp!!

Strategy

Expansion plan for next 6 months: We recently received funding for global expanstion. This requires more advance planning than we originally realized. We are now focusing on how to go global most efficiently, including overcoming language barriers, etc.

Plans for sustaining the project: Having this project be sustainable is vital to us. We constantly apply for grants as well as awards that will bring funding to the project. As we all graduate from college we plan to reserve a portion of our income to fund our project. We will eventrually have science centers across the country.

Vision for three years from now: Three years from now we plan to have expanded our camps to all fifty states and be international. Eight years from now we plan to begin opening science learning centers around the country.

Project impact: No Boundaries has encouraged over a thousand young girls to have a positive attitude about science learning. Most of our camps are done for "at risk" girls, who need direction on how to break the cycle of poverty in their families. Education is always the best answer for them. Opportunities in the fields of science are exciting and high paying. Many teachers have told us that girls who have attended our camps are embracing science learning with enthusiasm and confidence in their classrooms. Working with "at risk" girls makes it "easier" for them to get this early science learning experience which will impact them their whole lives. These girls, who could never afford traditional "science camps" get the leg up they need to get excited about learning. Our ultimate goal is for these girls to continue with science learning and eventually work in the field which would break the poverty cycle making life "easier" for their families and for generations to come.

Youth Venture movement - what it means and how you can contribute: I'm honored to be a part of the Youth Venture movement. Youth Venture is a big reason our venture has had the success we have. Our team is mentoring other young people locally, encouraging them to find a way to impact our community. I hope our team can be an example to other young people who dream big. Sometimes all it takes to make a difference in your community is to be the person who is willing to try. We hope to help kids realize that they really can make a difference. We have noticed that many of the awards that are available to projects like ours now come with a donation to your favorite non-profit. It makes us proud to give these donations to Youth Venture to help give other kids the inspiration that we have gotten from YV.

Author:
Becca
United States
Website: www.astrotots.org