BB2C Student Perspective: Katie Kitchen, Marietta College Intern

Katie Kitchen and BB2C were chosen to participate in the Robert and Sally Evans Civic Engagement Internship program through Marietta College this summer. At the heart of this program is providing opportunities for kids in our area. Katie worked repeatedly with kids enrolled in the Boys and Girls Club summer camp to expose them to the Epicenter Makerspace and improve their skills with the variety of equipment we have available for community use.

In her own words...

You could hear them coming long before you would ever see them.

This summer, BB2C was able to offer weekly programming for the students of the Marietta Boys and Girls Club. They would walk, or more accurately run, down from their club to the Makerspace on Mondays and Wednesdays. Each group of students got to complete projects focusing on skills that they may not have exposure to elsewhere. The projects varied between woodshop, 3D printing, vinyl cutting, art, sewing, and much more.

The middle school students who came on Mondays were able to not only complete the weekly projects, but also receive one-on-one training on various machines throughout the summer. This allowed the students to gain new skill sets and knowledge of various career fields. Each middle school student was taken through a checklist on each tool/machine in order to ensure that safety remained a high priority and to prove to an instructor that they could correctly use the machine in future projects.

From the first week to the last week there was a marked difference in the students’ ability to complete a project and to focus on a task. When they first started coming to the Makerspace, we had to plan multiple activities for each session because the students would race through each activity without paying attention to quality of work. By the end of the summer, however, we only needed to plan one activity because the students were well versed in the skills it would take to complete the activities and they actually wanted to focus on the details. Their comfort level with the various machines and other skills directly correlated to their interest level and their ability to focus on a task.

This summer allowed 24 different middle school students and 48 different elementary school students to come through the Makerspace. In total, 237 new and repeat student visitors were able to experience the BB2C summer programming at the Makerspace.

Thank you, Katie!! We loved having the kids in the Makerspace this summer.