Online classes: july update to the robotics for all community

Dear Robotics for All Community:
With roughly 250 K-8th grade students now enrolled in our online classes, we cannot begin to put into words how incredibly proud we are of our volunteers for building such a program.

When the pandemic hit a little over four months ago, we thought it would be a short term problem. It wasn’t, and it soon became apparent that the opportunity gap that Robotics for All is dedicated to solving would only widen. To this end, we quickly turned around, brought on new summer volunteers to help us create a series of comprehensive, online-only curricula serving K through 8th graders. These curricula include Fundamentals of Programming for K-3rd, Scratch, Python, and CAD. For the first time, we were able to teach Kindergarteners and Middle Schoolers. 

In the past three weeks, our volunteers started teaching our classes. Despite some minor technical difficulties, the rollout of our online classes was a resounding success. To the 70+ volunteers who helped with teaching, publicizing classes, coordinating classes, and/or making the curriculum, we wish there was a better word than “thank you” to express how incredibly grateful we are for your dedication and commitment to our mission. 

We have gone so far and made so much progress, and we are certainly not stopping here. As we plan to expand our program to include more students and work directly with schools in low income communities, we are actively creating more curricula to increase our offering of classes.

Next fall, we are also rolling out two exciting new programs: a free online on-demand tutoring service for low income communities and a mentorship program for high schoolers to best prepare them for post-high school success. We have also secured agreements with several schools for online classes, including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's The Primary School in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

The pandemic has fundamentally changed our strategy to carrying out our mission, but it has changed it for the better. Never have we imagined that we would have an online platform, but now online classes are at the core of our business model. The benefits are limitless -- from enabling volunteers to teach from anywhere to students anywhere, online teaching enables us to reach more students than ever before possible. While we plan on continuing our in-person classes after the pandemic is over, our online classes will remain. 

We must not forget the many millions of lives that have been upended by this pandemic. While one organization cannot solve all problems caused by the pandemic, we are incredibly proud that our volunteers are stepping up to the plate, and doing their part to level the opportunity gap. We can not wait to see what the next month will bring us!

Best Regards,
Maximilian Goetz, on behalf of the Robotics for All Board of Directors

Maximilian Goetz
Founder and CEO
max@roboticsforall.net

Garrett Tieng
Vice President and COO
garrett@roboticsforall.net