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Quirk-Silva Funds STEM Program for Boys & Girls Club of Fullerton

For immediate release:
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Digital Days Will Bring Together Grade School Students with Students from California State University, Fullerton

 

(Brett Ackerman, CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Fullerton (left), with Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva)

FULLERTON –Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva (D – Orange County) has secured a total of $45,000 in funding for the Boys & Girls Club of Fullerton from the State Budget. This funding will allow the Boys & Girls Club to establish their program, Digital Days. The program is a collaboration between California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) and the Boys & Girls Club of Fullerton. It will offer students from the 4th – 6th grade the opportunity to expand their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) skill set through an after-school curriculum facilitated by CSUF students and faculty. This funding allocation is part of varied and continuous efforts from Quirk-Silva to bring state money back into Orange County.

“This is an investment in Orange County and California’s future, and we can remain the most innovative state in the nation when we continue to show students the value of a STEM education,” said Quirk-Silva. “We must ensure our youth have the advanced skill set they need to thrive in a world of ever-advancing technologies.”

“Thank you is the least I can say to Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva for her efforts in securing funding for Fullerton’s future leaders.  She is a true champion for youth,” said Brett Ackerman, CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Fullerton. “These funds will bring many hours of much needed STEM programing to our kids and for that we thank her.”

Together, CSUF and the Boys & Girls Club will implement the Digital Days 16-week engineering program in three different sites of the Boys & Girls Club. The program will focus on three different STEM skill areas: Mobile application (app) development, basic digital logic circuits, and Arduino microcontroller programming. The curriculum will culminate in a project involving one or more of these three skill areas. The curriculum will be developed by CSUF faculty, and taught by CSUF student instructors for the mutual benefit of CSUF and the Boys & Girls Club. CSUF mentors will gain valuable experience teaching, and working in the community, while Boys & Girls Club students will benefit from interaction with college-level students from CSUF and the reinforcement of math and science concepts through additional, practical curriculum.