STEAMbassadors
What is a STEAMbassador?
Project Exploration STEM Facilitators are outstanding mentors who share their STEM passions with PE students. In pulling from multiple established curricula, collaborating with our partners, and catering their lesson plans to the interests of students, STEM Facilitators provide students with hands-on, authentic experiences which build scientific skills, fuel curiosity, and encourage students to develop their STEM identities.
In addition, Project Exploration leverages the talents of STEM Facilitators to lead field trips, plan special events, develop STEMbook pages and videos to engage students and families outside of programs, and prepare students for PE’s annual culminating event or Reflection of Knowledge, in which students showcase their talents.
The goals we collectively seek to achieve include:
- Strengthen students’ connection to learning by engaging them in a community of practice that includes STEM Professionals, educators, and each other;
- Build scientific skills, fuel curiosity, and encourage students to identify themselves as scientists with hands-on science experiments that demonstrate the power and versatility of scientific inquiry;
- Equip students for long-term achievement by challenging them to develop their perseverance, emotional resilience, interpersonal skills, and leadership ability;
- Work with communities to create a more equitable, authentic, and engaging STEM environments, in school and out.
Student outcomes made possible by our STEM Facilitators include:
- Increased self-confidence in STEM competencies, skills, and abilities.
- Increased self-confidence in critical 21st century skills, such as leadership, communication, and collaboration.
- Increased STEM aspirations or pursuits, including careers.
STEAMBASSADORS
Anastasia Villalobos
STEAMBASSADOR
Attends Olive-Harvey Community College, studying Elementary Education and will be receiving an Associate’s Degree, and planning to attend a four-year college to receive a bachelor’s degree. Anastasia says that the most enjoyable thing about being a STEAMbassabor is engaging with children and being able to be part of their learning process.
Spring 2022 Programs
STEM@Home
Little Sisters4 Science
3rd-5th grade
Betty Shabazz
STEMQuest
6th grade
Barbara Sizemore
STEMQuest
7th-8th grade
My major is the reason I decided to work with Project Exploration. It gives me the perfect opportunity to develop my teaching skills. I started working with Project Exploration in summer of 2020. My favorite part about being a STEM Facilitator is that I can choose the curriculum and the experiments that I want to teach to the students. What I have learned from working with our youth is that they bring many different perspectives to our projects, and the students show that there is more than one way to solve a problem.
STEAMBASSADOR
Bianca Yvette Eddings graduated from Harry S. Truman college with an Associates in Arts in 2020, and finds great joy in learning new things and working with her hands. She hopes to continue doing these activities for a long time. As a current STEAMbassador for Project Exploration, she appreciates the kindness and patience of those working with her and teaching her. Both their advice and examples have helped her to become a better mentor and coworker.
Spring 2022 Programs
Building Block Club (K)
Betty Shabazz
STEMQuest
6th grade
Barbara Sizemore
STEMQuest
7th-8th grade
I hope that they can see some of that progress this year when I teach. One curriculum I really look forward to demonstrating my skills in is the Seeds! Curriculum. You see, I love gardening and I have a lot of plants that I can show for demonstrations.
LeAna Simpson
STEAMBASSADOR
LéAna Simpson attends DePaul University with a major in Cellular/Molecular Neuroscience (on the pre-med track). She plans to become a neurosurgeon, and has obtained her medical assistant and patient care technician certifications, with a goal of moving the “chain” in the medical field. LeAna feels that Project Exploration makes science accessible to everyone and allows its facilitators to work on topics they are passionate about while also potentially inspiring others in the process. It is truly incredible!
Fun Fact: She has played saxophone for roughly 9 years now!
Spring 2022 Programs
UCCS Donoghue
Building Block Club
K-2
SLC @ BNL
STEMQuest
6th-8th grade
Betty Shabazz
STEMQuest
5th & 8th grade
I’m looking forward to making a difference! I hope that I can at least inspire someone to explore the scientific field this year because there is so much to offer!
Lidia Swire
STEAMBASSADORS
Lidia Swire attends the University of Illinois at Chicago, majoring in Biological Sciences, but I would like to change it to Nursing. She decided to join Project Exploration because she wants to show younger children and youth that STEM is involved in your everyday life, STEM can be exciting, and that some of their favorite things to do and eat require some form of STEM. Her favorite part about being a STEM Facilitator / STEAMbassador is being a friendly face and an encouraging persona to push students to keep trying
and never give up.
Spring 2022 Programs
STEM@Home
Building Block Club (K-2)
Sisters4Science (6-8)
Barbara Sizemore
BuildingBlock Club
K4 & 1st grade
What I have learned from working with youth in the past is to ask follow-up
and understanding questions, make sure they ask questions, connect the topic to some of their
favorite things, and problem solving. What I plan to learn is how to keep them engaged for the
entire class and making sure that I speak in a certain language so that they can understand the
topic.
STEAMBASSADOR
My name is Maria Fernanda Avila attends Northeastern Illinois University with a major in Early Childhood Ed. Her aspirations for the future are to receive her bachelor’s degree and become a K-2 lead teacher. What she appreciates most about PE is that PE gives herthe opportunity to work as a facilitator with the tools to continue learning and growing in her education pathway.
Fun Fact: Maria loves to eat all types of chocolate!
Spring 2022 Programs
Holy Family School
Building Block Club (K-2)
STEMQuest (3-4)
Hefferan Elementary School
Medical Sciences / STEMQuest
3rd-5th grade
My name is Maria Fernanda Avila attends Northeastern Illinois University with a major in Early Childhood Ed. Her aspirations for the future are to receive her bachelor’s degree and become a K-2 lead teacher. What she appreciates most about PE is that PE gives herthe opportunity to work as a facilitator with the tools to continue learning and growing in her education pathway.
Fun Fact: Maria loves to eat all types of chocolate!
This year 2022 I’m looking forward to meet, most of the students in person, to gain the experience of being working in a classroom in person. To keep learning new abilities, the new curriculum that PE always provides. and to have fun in each of the activities I am learning and facilitating.
STEAMBASSADOR
Miyako is an Engineering student soon to attend Illinois Tech. Miyako has experience in several different fields other than STEM. In his free time, he also runs a business around creative art and writing. Marshall believes that you cannot have one without the other and has a strong connection with IIT’s highly interdisciplinary approach.
Marshall is currently transitioning from a Chicago City college- where he received his Associates Degree. His goal is to get a PhD in a relevant field and do research towards a better future for us all. Until then, he aims to do what he can with PE to gain relevant experience while having the chance to help foster his own passion for STEM, for all of his students.
Spring 2022 Programs
Plato Learning Academy
STEMQuest
6th – 8th grade
Lawndale Community Academy
STEMQuest
3rd – 8th grade
STEM@Home
Little Brothers4Science
3rd – 5th grade
Barbara Sizemore
STEMQuest
3rd & 4th grade
Douglass HS
Explore Engineering
STEAMbassadors are now serving as PE STEM Facilitators
The Chicago STEAMbassadors Community Mentoring Program is an initiative led by a network of influential nonprofit and academic leaders united in their commitment to our city’s young people.
The goal of this network is to provide a platform through which young adults, ages 18 to 24, may develop their own leadership skills and interests in STEAM while at the same time promoting the growth of school-age youth. Recruited from Chicago South and West side communities and trained by Northwestern University Office of Community Education Partnerships, Digital Youth Network, Project Exploration, and City Colleges of Chicago, STEAMbassadors are then deployed back into their own communities to support the citywide youth development work.
Our collective vision is that these young leaders from the community will go on to lead sustainable growth for the community.
Project Exploration’s first 20 STEAMbassadors were deployed in the summer of 2020. Since then, the model has become a best practice, simultaneously allowing us to develop our students, while strengthening the leadership skills of young, college-aged adults who are pursuing their own dreams of becoming educators and professionals in a wide array of STEM fields.
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