Equitable STEM Access for First-Gen Students
Crunch Club officially launched as a collaboration between Bridge for All, Breakthrough Silicon Valley, and Mark Rober’s Crunch Labs.
The program was designed to give first-generation middle school students access to hands-on STEM learning. With a focus on physics and AI, Crunch Club combined state-of-the-art kits, peer mentorship, and accessible instruction to support curiosity and confidence in STEM fields.
“I enjoyed collaborating with the coaches and my friends. Crunch Club has been growing my interest in engineering. Thanks!” 6 out of 6: “I would recommend this to a friend!”
— Nicolle, first-gen Breakthrough student
How Crunch Club All Began
While toy testing at Mark Rober’s Crunch Labs, I felt like a million bucks. I shared my love for physics with the product development team, tested new inventions, and got to be featured in a cool HackPack launch video. It was thrilling. But something resonated with me.
At Breakthrough Silicon Valley, I’ve loved serving as a STEM facilitator, where students come from first-generation backgrounds and Title I schools.
While I had just experienced the privilege of using state-of-the-art kits, my STEM students usually worked with more humble resources. While they can build magic no matter what, I also knew they’d equally love building these cool and creative projects as likeminded STEM-enthusiasts.
I deeply admire Breakthrough Silicon Valley’s mission, which helps students “unleash potential” by “elevating communities.”
Why not elevate their STEM learning with Mark Rober’s Crunch Labs physics merged with MIT & Stanford’s AI curriculum, plus integrate our birds-eye perspective as Bridge for All “near peer mentors”? Thus, the Crunch Club dream collab was launched.
Bridge for All: Our Story
Two of my dearest friends (Samuel & Vedant) and I co-founded Bridge for All — a nonprofit devoted to building equitable pathways to opportunity.
Our leadership reflects our strengths: My co-founders often lead our Speech, Business, Marketing, and Humanities outreach, while I often spearhead STEM initiatives, and we all collectively focus on empowerment, innovation, mentorship, and access.
So far, we’ve hosted 30+ free programs and reached over 700 students across 90+ schools. And one of our proudest achievements yet is the creation of Crunch Club.
What Is Crunch Club Collab
Crunch Club is a first-of-its-kind partnership between Bridge for All, Mark Rober’s Crunch Labs, and Breakthrough Silicon Valley, built to ignite curiosity, collaboration, and confidence in first-generation students.
We fundraised to launch our pilot at Hoover Middle School, bringing together 7th and 8th Breakthrough SV students from across multiple schools.
With the awesome mentorship of Mr. Sergio Quinones from Breakthrough SV and Mark Rober’s amazing team graciously blessing our Crunch Club namesake, we recruited a passionate team of 10 youth teachers, including:
- Robotics leaders from TKA, some who personally met with Mark Rober!
- Mentors from Bellarmine’s 5x World Champion FRC robotics team, bringing elite engineering experience to the table.
Futuristic Learning That Feels Like Play
Crunch Club combines Crunch Labs’ hands-on physics kits, incorporating futuristic nuggets from the Reach MIT-AI and Stanford-AI curriculum, which gives students the chance to explore both tangible engineering and cutting-edge AI concepts.
From building gear-driven machines to learning about deepfakes using a hilarious “Baby Elon Musk” video, we make science real and relevant. Our student-friendly slides simplify big ideas, while our student coaches bring mentorship and fun.