Texas Border Business
Edinburg — The staff and mentors at Boys & Girls Clubs of Edinburg RGV are proud of the new STEM Mentoring Makerspace designed to educate and stimulate kids’ creativity while fostering relationships with caring adults. But the club members themselves are even more excited about the 3-D pens & printers, Lego robotics equipment, laser cutters and more.
“It’s amazing to work with stuff like that here,” said 12-year-old, Kassandra de la Garza as she shared her experience making items with a 3-D pen.
“It was very hard to learn,” she said, describing her first effort at making a guitar. “Not very good, the first time. I had to go back and make some tweaks. ”
The Makerspace and its equipment were funded through a combination of sources such as the Office of Justice Program, HEB Foundation, Sea Research Foundation, and Magic Valley Electric Cooperative. It continues the club’s emphasis on STEM – science, technology, engineering,
“This equipment will be used to allow our members to complete hands-on projects to help them meet real-world needs in their lives,” said, Sabrina Walker Hernandez, CEO. “Ultimately, we are introducing our young members to new career paths through technology – things like entrepreneurship, technical trade skills,
Program areas include 2-D design, which covers paper drawing and crafts as well as computer-assisted design and laser cutting; 3-D engineering; electronics; and coding.
The Makerspace is located at the organization’s main site – The Legacy Center.
