As the world becomes more technologically advanced, knowledge of math and science has become critical for students to learn in order to prepare themselves for the future. Despite this need, American students have fallen behind their international counterparts and the fields of math and science are not as popular as they once were. Over the past few decades, interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (known as STEM) has decreased among students.
These problems are exacerbated when you drill down into underrepresented demographic groups including African Americans and Latinos. Lack of interest and lack of role models has an economic toll since these students miss out on high paying STEM jobs in high demand. This is why in most communities, the average household income for Blacks are half as much compared to their white peers. This is why HAKing Innovation was founded.
HAKing Innovation focuses on technical topics and developing fundamental skills, all while incorporating fun topics like 3D printed Jewelry and Technology in sports. Our three main programming includes STEAM Workshop series, afterschool classes, and summer programs. These three programs are targeted at students aged 5 - 14 with curriculum of varying difficulty. Our additional programs help to create a community around technical engineering. This includes an internship program that helps students to get their first technical internship.
Right now, we are looking to expand our programming. one of the drawbacks of STEM programming is that it can be very costly depending on the equipment being used. We try to make our programming as affordable as possible, while still creating a technical and rigorous experience. The funds raised for giving day will be used to help offset the costs of our programming.
Outside the capital, our team is in need of help on volunteer coordination in order to multiply our impact. This not only includes teaching the students about different careers, but also as we expand our work with our college and high school interns we will need to provide better mentorship and professional development for them as well.
The mission of HAKing Innovation is "Building Confidence and Competence using Technology as a Tool." We provide STEAM education programming (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) in order to help showcase to students the different options they have as careers. We also emphasize that critical thinking is the key skill, and technology is just a tool we leverage to solve problems. With our relevant course topics, and expertise of student teachers, we are able to teach rigorous course topics like coding, 3D printing, and circuits.
Our current needs are to support our two major programming targets; students and interns.
For our students, we want to buy more electronics kits to help streamline the learning process. Every $100 buys an electronics kit that we can keep using from class to class.
For our interns, we want to provide supplies for them to use during the internship, but also leftover supplies can be used during their first corporate internship. We want to buy a nice pad folio and notebook that they can feel like a professional when they take it out. We. budget $150 for a pad folio / notebook combination.
Our programs have always been built to be accessible to all students. We create space for students that are often overlooked, while also providing opportunities for students who have substantial engineering exposure. That way we can achieve our vision of a community focused around technical talent.
Organization name
HAKing Innovation
Operating Budget
$100,000 - $249,999
Counties Served
Collin, Dallas, Denton, Rockwall, Tarrant
BIPOC Serving
Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, Other
BIPOC Leadership
Both the Executive Director/CEO and Board Chair
Address
5076 E. Mockingbird Lane #115-25