By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
A program that gives students the opportunity to do some things after school that they may not be able to do in the classroom is back for another year.
STEAM after school began three years ago at Empower U in downtown St. Joseph as the coronavirus pandemic kept students out of the classroom.
Program operations director with the Mosaic Life Care Foundation Devran Brower says when the program began, they weren't sure what to expect.
"It was kind of a let's just pilot this thing, see if it works, see if there's an interest, and if not that's ok, we just want to do things, we really want to serve our community is what the foundation is all about" Brower tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "And so, if this is something people find value in let's move forward, and if not, it's ok we still offer STEAM programming's in the form of field trips for some schools."
Brower says Empower U also has a summer program for students to come and do fun STEAM activities.
Brower says the program was designed to offer opportunities to students that they may not get at their school.
"We just like the students to have the opportunity to come in and play with this technology," Brower says. "As we all know there's going to be a lot of opportunity in the future in careers and jobs within these fields, and so we just want them to look at it and see if it sparks a passion or something they might be interested in for their future."
Brower says not all kids participate in after school sports
"It's just another opportunity for them to plug in somewhere and, like I said, not only have fun with the materials here and experiment, but also to meet some other kiddos with kind of a like mind out there," Brower explains.
The program is open to students in third through fifth grades as well as sixth through eighth grades, running on Tuesdays from 4:30 to 6pm through March 14th.
You can register to attend a session HERE.
