Building the Next Generation of Engineers: Crunch Club 2026 at Breakthrough Silicon Valley

Bridge for All × Breakthrough Silicon Valley × Mark Rober’s Crunch Labs

This spring, Bridge for All was honored to partner once again with Breakthrough Silicon Valley and Mark Rober’s Crunch Labs to bring another unforgettable year of Crunch Club to first-generation students.

Crunch Club combines hands-on engineering, physics, artificial intelligence, and collaborative problem solving into an experience designed to show students that STEM isn’t just something to study. It’s something they can create.

Young Women in STEM + New Coaches

One of the highlights of this year’s program was seeing even more young women choose STEM. We were thrilled to welcome a larger group of female students than ever before while also expanding our own coaching team with three outstanding female STEM mentors: Chloe, Yvonne, and Sweekriti. Their enthusiasm, encouragement, and technical expertise helped create an environment where every student felt capable of tackling engineering challenges.

They joined an incredible volunteer team that included new coaches Lucas, Jonas, and Wesley, alongside returning mentors Adrian, Aiden, Hudson, Noah, and Sree, whose experience helped create another memorable summer of learning.

Inside the Program

Throughout the program, students explored cutting-edge AI concepts through portions of the Stanford and MIT AI curriculum while building and experimenting with Mark Rober’s Crunch Labs engineering kits. Every week was filled with curiosity, teamwork, creativity, and plenty of laughter.

Of course, learning wasn’t the only highlight. Crunch Club’s VIPs love our snacks too! The now-famous Auntie Anne’s Pretzel Bites quickly became a student favorite, proving once again that great engineering is even better with great snacks.

Perhaps the greatest success, however, wasn’t measured by projects completed. It was measured by the excitement students showed every single week. Students eagerly solved challenges together, celebrated one another’s successes, and discovered that engineering can be both rigorous and incredibly fun.

Upcoming Expansion

Looking ahead, Bridge for All is excited to expand Crunch Club beyond California.

Beginning this year, new Crunch Clubs will launch in Virginia and New Jersey, led by Ethan and Benji, helping even more first-generation students discover the joy of physics, AI, engineering, and hands-on problem solving.

As our community continues to grow, so does our belief that every student deserves access to inspiring STEM opportunities, caring mentors, and a place where curiosity is celebrated.

We can’t wait to see what our next generation of innovators builds.