Veritas Education Leaders - BranchOut!

BranchOut! was inspired by a talk by former Dean Jim Ryan of Harvard Graduate School of Education and Dr. Chad Womack of the United Negro College Fund in late 2015. The talk was about how to prepare students for the 21st century careers and develop students’ interest in STEM. Dr. Yuhsien Wu, a Harvard alumna, responded to the call to action. In a few short months, BranchOut! was created to bridge achievement and cultural gaps in the current system. The program began in 2016 with 20 high school students from the DC area who served as mentors/class teaching assistants at the DC International Charter School. Since then, we have expanded to include 600 students volunteers coming from 4 different states serving 14 locations/organizations, including FCPS, MCPS, HCPSS, Patrick Henry Family Shelter, and the James Lee Community Center. The program is continuing to grow with support from members of Congress and prominent school board officials. Through our student leadership program, we hope to create a diverse future in STEAM education!

We started out in 2016 as a STEM mentoring/tutoring program, where we provided support to both public schools and charter schools. Since 2019, we have evolved to include different types of community service and outreach programs. In addition to offering STEM tutoring, we also organize career panels to help educate youth about the various career opportunities, create apps to promote education and mental wellness for K-12 students, and engage in research on educational topics.

More specifically, volunteers can choose to participate in one of the following programs:

1. Online tutoring/class (until the end of the 2021-2022 school year): Volunteers will either be matched 1-on-1 to tutor K-12 students or will be put in an introductory class for various subjects, including math (Algebra I and beyond), computer science, biology, and chemistry to help students solidify their knowledge. The goal is for the volunteers to apply their school knowledge in a real life setting by helping those who are struggling academically.

2. Career panel: We believe that even during these unprecedented times, students can still find ways to learn about their future and set appropriate career goals. Our student volunteers work in groups to find experts in the field of their choice (computer science, medicine, aviation, food, etc) to talk about their professions, which will in turn help the audience learn more about the industry as well as providing a forum to ask questions.

3. Innovator: This is a project-based program designed for students to use their creativity and technical skills to create meaningful change in their communities. Working in teams, student volunteers will work in the developers or curriculum design team to create a mobile application for the Standards of Learning (SOL) test preparation called SOLve or a mental health initiative called vCare.