I Imagine. I Invent. I Engineer.

An engineering student at the University of Southern California wanted to use her expertise to improve the community, but didn’t know how. That is, until she enrolled in "Engineers as Teachers," a course designed by local non-profit, Iridescent, for inner city Los Angeles engineers to give back to the community that surrounds them.

At Iridescent, our mission is to foster curiosity, confidence, and a love for science and engineering in underserved children. We want them to reach for the stars, to become scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, to lift their own communities and to tackle the world’s biggest problems. In order to do this, highly trained USC undergraduate, graduate, and professional engineers and scienctists develop cutting-edge math and science lessons to inspire underprivileged youth. They turn the complex concepts of all sectors of Engineering into simple and interesting ideas and activities that translate into break-dancing, animal locomotion, renewable energy, medical imaging, physics of sailing or even structural color.

Furthermore, Iridescent involves parents of underprivileged youth in the learning process. This enables a more educated and empowered parent to continue and support outside learning once the course has finished. In the past 2.5 years, Iridescent has successfully trained 185 volunteering professional engineers, undergraduate and graduate students, conducted 120 multi-session courses (15,260 student-hours and 1400 parent-hours of instruction), and these courses have reached more than 4100 under-served children and their parents. As a result, we expect 80% of students to state an increased interest in STEM careers, 80% of parents to state an increase in the ability and confidence to support their child’s interest in Science and Mathematics, and the University of Southern California engineers to show 80% gains in communication and leadership skills.

Such an accomplishment was no easy task, however, worth every moment of dedication to the cause. After her teaching experience the engineering student was asked, "How much of an impact do you expect to have on others through your service?" The engineering student replied, "A big one…! It is really a big deal to be working with students at a young age so they can be exited about what they're learning and {so these students can} be really ambitious for the future."