Announcement of Cherise Charleswell's Departure and Search for New Executive Director
It is with a mix of sadness and gratitude that we announce the departure of Cherise Charleswell from her role as the Executive Director of Boundless Brilliance. Cherise has made the difficult decision to step down from the position in order to attend to urgent personal matters. We are immensely grateful for Cherise's invaluable contributions to Boundless Brilliance. Her commitment, vision, and tireless efforts have left a mark on our organization and both the college and elementary students that we serve.
Katie Wolber will be stepping in as Interim Executive Director while we conduct a search for a new Executive Director. If you are interested in the Executive Director position or know someone who is interested, please take a look at the job description, available here.
Summer Activity Packets
This summer, we are offering NINE different, carefully curated empowering STEM Packets for kids in grades K-5! There are three different packets for each grade level, each with its own theme, so that you are able to choose one or two that are perfect for your young learner! We will also have activity packets available for 6th and 7th graders starting in mid-July.
Each of the packets includes three weeks of daily activities! The pages include exciting STEM experiments, empowering activities, coloring pages, super scientist highlights, and additional fun facts! All of our STEM experiments align with Next Generation Science Standards for that grade level.
Boundless Brilliance Team Updates
We are excited to welcome Lily Gebhart, who will serve as our Curriculum Assistant, and Tali Kessler, who will be our Communications Manager, to our Boundless Brilliance staff for the summer of 2023.
Lily Gebhart is a junior at Occidental College majoring in Mathematics and Cognitive Science with a Neuroscience minor. She is the current president of the Occidental College chapter of Boundless Brilliance and has been involved in the organization since August 2021. Since November 2022, she has also served as the Student Board Member of the nonprofit board of Boundless Brilliance. As the Curriculum Assistant, Lily will be working to develop and rework programs and curriculum delivered by Boundless Brilliance to better serve students in STEM everywhere!
On campus, she is involved in co-running a STEM tutoring program, math tutoring, and several computational research projects. Lily greatly enjoys teaching and developing resources to help others find joy in intellectual pursuits and cultivate passions of their own. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Computational Cognitive Science and work in academia. In her free time, Lily enjoys exploring nature, reading, and art.
Tali Kessler has been volunteering with Boundless Brilliance since August 2019 in a variety of different roles, working first as a college chapter presenter, then as an intern creating summer lesson plans and social media content, and has been volunteering as the nonprofit blog editor since the fall of 2021. As communications manager, Tali also assists in alumni organization and outreach, creating and distributing the organization’s newsletters, and redesigning and updating the Boundless Brilliance website and member resources.
Tali is a recent graduate of Occidental College with a B.A. in biochemistry, and plans to apply to medical school to pursue a career in pediatric medicine. Tali greatly enjoys helping others discover their academic potential and passion and was a peer tutor for both German and organic chemistry during her time at college, and she loves working with students to empower them to pursue futures in STEM!
APU Chapter Update
The APU BB chapter has had a successful academic year, reaching a large number of students and receiving numerous invitations to community events! One such event was the "Marshall Fundamental Science Night," where our booth was visited by over 100 students ranging from 6th to 12th grade. Other community events we participated in were the "Don Benito Stargazing Night," catering to students from kindergarten to 5th grade with an attendance of approximately 50 students, and "Dalton Elementary's STEM Day," where we engaged with around 70 students from various elementary school grades. The APU chapter also organized its 3rd annual STEAM Day at APU's Segerstrom Science Center. This year's event garnered a turnout of over 100 enthusiastic students! The success of STEAM Day was evident in the positive feedback we received, for example in emails from parents inquiring about the possibility of having similar summer programs inspired by the offerings of STEAM Day.
Photos from APU's 3rd Annual STEAM Day
The APU chapter was also able to give two presentations at Jackson Elementary. Many thanks to presenters Merai Ebrahim, who presented to 4th grade, and Stephanie Gutierrez, who presented to 3rd-4th grade students. We are grateful to these women for dedicating their time and effort for Boundless Brilliance!
Overall, the APU chapter has made significant strides in its outreach efforts, actively participating in community events and positively impacting the education of students across different grade levels. We remain dedicated to nurturing this interaction with the community, as we recognize the tremendous benefits of encouraging scientific exploration and collaboration among students and BB members alike.
12,800 Students & Successful Spring Events
As of June 2023, we have now reached over 12,800 students!! Since the pandemic, it has been a slow journey to get back into classrooms, and we are so proud of all of our volunteers and college chapters for persevering through these last few years. We are also very proud and excited to announce that this past spring, we were finally able to give a number of classroom presentations and also attended many school STEM nights and other community events!
One of the incredible events that we were able to attend was the City of STEM Science Festival and LA Maker Fair. We partnered with the Natural History Museum of LA to share a booth area and provide nature walks throughout the day! Members from Women in Tech Hollywood stopped by to help us out, in addition to college chapter volunteers and a few members of our board. We handed out 360 STEM workbooks and even more people stopped by our table! It was busy all day long and the kids loved the four different activities we had going on.
We were also able to gather our staff and college chapter members together for a staff retreat at Occidental College! Some of our advisory members and board members were able to attend as well. This was a great place for conversations, both about BB and sharing experiences in STEM! This event was particularly special since it was one of the first times some of our members got to meet each other in person!
13 Weeks of Summer Annual Fundraiser
We are hosting the 13 Weeks of Summer fundraiser, and hope to reach our fundraising goal over the summer. Meeting this goal will help to ensure that Boundless Brilliance will be able to provide our supplemental STEM educational programs at NO COST to students.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: The first 40 people who make a donation of $60 or more will receive a complimentary copy of We Are Brilliant: A Workbook for the Future STEM Workforce as a thank you gift!
The highest fundraiser(s) in the winning team will receive thank you gifts from our sponsors!
Can we count on your support? Please make a donation today!
Like, Subscribe, & Share our YouTube Channel
Help us engage an even larger audience of students globally by simply taking the time to subscribe to and share our YouTube channel.
Access the channel HERE.
Volunteer with BB
We have many virtual volunteer opportunities, and have a need for volunteers with diverse skill sets and expertise. You can even pitch a project that you would like to work on! To learn more about volunteering, contact us at info@boundlessbrilliance.org or visit our website.
““Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good””
““Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it””
