Crunch Club Launch That Felt Like a Celebration

At the very first Crunch Club session at Hoover Middle School, connection came first. Before any gears turned or AI demos played, the goal was simple: make every student feel welcomed, seen, and excited to be there. With snacks, music, raffles, and a team of near-peer mentors ready to cheer them on, the space was designed to build trust and comfort. From the start, Crunch Club set out to be more than a class—it was a community in the making.

To up the fun, we served snacks like:

• Crazy Breadsticks and Mr. Beast Snacks

• Steph Curry’s Plezi drinks

• Participation rewards, raffles, and prizes

The engagement was felt. The connection was real. And the best part? The students felt valued..

As my mom always says:

“You’re blessed as my VIP. Go make others feel like VIPs too.”

That’s honestly what the core of this was all about.

Student Testimonials: What Crunch Club Students Are Saying

Kendrick: “I loved the food, the Crunch Labs, and the experiences along the way.”
6/6 for feeling connected and for recommending to a friend.

Diego.: “Everything is good…I liked the food and the leaders because they helped a lot.”
6/6 recommendation.

Geraldine.: “I enjoyed the snacks and the building part. It was so fun to be here & I love it. Also the raffle was fun!”
6/6 all around.

Leo.: “I enjoyed the coaches and the snacks.”
6/6 for recommending to a friend.

Jonathan.: “Fun to build boxes and play with them.”
6/6 recommendation.

Kason: “I enjoyed the things we built… and I’d  recommend this class to a friend.”

Caitlyn: “Crunch Club was fun because I could make Crunch Labs build boxes for free!”

Sree: “The fact that it is in person, the cool MIT concepts, and Hudson.”

Vincent T.: “Very easy to understand!”
6/6 across the board.

Andrew: “Very nice organized slides. Good selection of boxes.”

Nicolle: “I enjoyed collaborating with the coaches and my friends. Crunch Club has been growing my interest in engineering. Thanks!”

What’s Next?

Our dream is to expand Crunch Club to more Breakthrough campuses and Title I schools across the Bay Area and beyond. With more partners, donors, and volunteers, we believe every student — regardless of background — can experience the joy of discovery, invention, and belonging.

Because when we bridge opportunity with innovation, we build more than just cool machines — we build up VIPs!

Interested in donating to future Crunch Club dreams? Go visit our fund me and help support our cause.

Image Gallery: Crunch Club in Action

Images include: 

• Students proudly showing off Crunch Club builds
• Coaches and students bonding over physics challenges
• Full group photos at Crunch Club kickoff 

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.