Last fall, over 300 volunteer professionals brought learning to life for middle school students in Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, and it all came together in December as our best WOW! season yet. From robotics to slam poetry, in the two weeks before winter break, the students presented their final work products to audiences across the city. They reminded us of why we call these events “WOW!s” - it is truly inspiring what students achieve when given the right opportunities. Below are a few of our favorite WOW! photos and moments. "Ad Lab" at the Ad Council
In “Ad Lab” apprenticeships, students worked with volunteers from Google, Havas, Huffington Post, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Young & Rubicam to research, write, and produce public service announcements (PSAs). At the WOW! events students explained the process of creating their PSAs and the importance of the topic they chose—staying in school—to executives at the Ad Council. Take a moment to view the PSA videos below - they will brighten your day!
- Don't let Life Pass You By with Young & Rubicam
- Hallway of Choices with Huffington Post
- Stop Bullying: High School Drop Out with Google
- There Once Was a Girl Named Amy with Saatchi & Saatchi
- A Boy Without a Dream with Havas
"Crack the Case" and "Feed Me Better" with Chobani
In "Crack the Case," students become product innovators by re-designing Chobani’s new, spoonless yogurt container for a teenage demographic. The students learned to run focus groups and brainstorming sessions before creating a prototype for their product modification. In "Feed Me Better," students learned the basics of healthy eating and became nutritional chefs, creating their own Chobani yogurt flavor. At the culminating WOW! event, students presented their product packaging design and their new yogurt flavors to Chobani leadership, including CEO Hamdi Ulukaya.
Google Mega WOW!
Students from East Harlem worked alongside Google employees to become web and video game designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs. All of the apprenticeships--including robotics, advertising, web design, Scratch video animation, Bootstrap video game design, and business entrepreneurship--came together in a joint WOW! at Google’s Chelsea office where the students demonstrated the wide variety of skills they learned from Googlers. For example, in the "Lego Robotics" apprenticeship students learned how to construct, program, and drive robots. At the WOW!, they explained how their robots were programmed before demonstrating how the robots could pick up and replace objects and maneuver around obstacles.
"Program a Game" with Amplify
In this apprenticeship, programmers from Amplify taught students from Brooklyn how to build and play their own customized computer game. Using the website Khan Academy, students learned all of the stages involved in computer programming. At their WOW!, held in Amplify’s home office, students presented their process from conception to coding and invited engineers from Amplify to play their games.
"Dental Fundamentals" with NYU College of Dentistry
In "Dental Fundamentals," graduate students from NYU College of Dentistry taught students in East Harlem the multiple skills needed to be a dentist - from the importance of dental health to casting a mold and even filling a cavity! At the WOW!, students set up presentation booths at NYU College of Dentistry and showed off their new skills to NYU Dental students as well as their families and peers.
