Welcome to the BEAM Blog!
BEAM's End-of-Year Newsletter is Here!
Yesterday, BEAM's quarterly newsletter arrived in the inboxes of all our subscribers! The newsletter featured:
A look at the very first semester of BEAM College Support.
The announcement of our Year End π Matching Campaign
A recap of recent events at BEAM, including our annual Yale Splash field trip and Trivia Events in NYC and LA
"What We're Reading (and Watching)"
Information on our job openings for summer staff
Missed it? You can read the newsletter now.
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Recap: BEAM Goes to Fall Yale Splash 2018!
Recently, nearly 70 BEAM alumni had the opportunity to travel to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut for one of our favorite yearly events: Yale Splash. This program offers students from 7-12 grade to enroll in courses that are taught by undergraduate volunteers in classrooms on campus. The students register online and get to pick their own classes and organize their own schedules. Yale Splash allows students to choose from an array of intriguing topics within many different fields. This year some of the students favorite courses included “Viking Age Iceland,” “The Science Behind Cookies,” and “Sharks: Nature’s Most Misunderstood.”
“In my favorite and most interesting class, “How The Brain Works”, I learned that you actually see upside down but it’s your brain that flips your vision right side up.”
After classes were dismissed, BEAM students reconvened at the library to meet with their assigned groups for tours. We had three undergraduate volunteers come to help give students a brief tour of campus and lead them to their assigned dining halls. A lot of our older students were especially excited to see a friendly face because Aishat Adekunle, a freshman at Yale and also a BEAM 7 alum from 2013 was one of our tour guides that evening! Although the weather was very choppy, students got see the ins and outs of a college campus. We explored the downtown area, ventured into the undergraduate commons and even got a sneak peek into student housing.
“From this trip overall I learned that college is a lot of work, but now I’m ahead of the game. I’m way more informed about college life than most kids my age so I’m ready for it when it comes in 4 or 5 years thanks to BEAM.”
After the tours, students were brought to the Yale dining halls for dinner. Fitting to BEAM, one of the dining halls we ate at is named after famous mathematician Grace Hopper. Students got to enjoy various foods and share with each other about their classes and highlights of the day. Afterwards, we all rallied back to buses for our journey back to New York City.
The pictures above feature many of our students throughout the day. The first picture is of 8th graders Yilin and Faoziah enjoying their 2 hour bus ride. Next, 11th grader Brianna and 8th grader Jeremiah show off their Yale Splash t-shirts. More 8th graders are shown hanging out; Ethan, Jeremiah and Amber are enjoying a quick break in the library’s lounge. Although it was quite rainy, Aishat got to reunite with some of her old friends from BEAM, Teo, Silvio, Rashik, Maria, Amanda and Elisa, before taking the students on a tour. Lastly, we have the same group eating at the John Edwards dining hall with Betty, one of the day time staff for the trip.
BEAM's fall newsletter is here! Meet Elijah & discover the BEAM domino effect.
What's new at BEAM?
In the current edition of BEAM's quarterly newsletter, you'll find: a video about Elijah, plans for Giving Tuesday, our annual "math-ing campaign", what we're reading, and highlights of the BEAM trip to Yale Splash.
BEAM Featured in Chalkbeat New York
BEAM was featured in Chalkbeat New York.
Chalkbeat New York traveled to Bard College last July to see classes, and then joined BEAM for our trip to Yale Splash. The result is a wonderful profile of our program. Click through to Chalkbeat to read the full story.
BEAM Goes to Yale Splash
BEAM students go to Yale University for a day at Yale Splash.
Every fall, BEAM heads to Yale for our favorite field trip of the year, Yale Splash! Splash is a day where college students open the campus to students in grades 7-12, and the college students teach their younger peers college-like courses. This year, students choose from classes including:
- Mathematical Paradoxes
- The Basics of Improv
- Environmental Justice
- Origami Workshop
- Chemical Biology
- Making a Robot
- Decoding Language
- Game Theory
- Introductory French
- College Admissions
- Beatlemania
- The Grid
- Meditation
- Foundations of Feminism in Medieval Text
- The Reeb Foliation of the 3-Sphere
- What makes a dinosaur a dinosaur?
After a busy day of class, students took a tour of campus and had dinner in Yale's historic colleges. Many took an opportunity to sleep on the ride back to New York City after such a busy day!
Read more about Yale Splash on their website.