Community Spotlight on Digi-Bridge
Digi-Bridge is a program that teaches STEAM initiatives to students between Kindergarten and 8th grade in Mecklenburg County.
The Junior League of Charlotte, Inc. (JLC) works with Digi-bridge on their #STEAMSaturdays to teach a series of 90-minute explorative courses covering different STEAM topics. Some of the most popular themes our members have taught are: Body (learning how kidneys filter blood, why some people have glasses), Space (constellations, distance between objects in the solar system, how NASA completed the MARS landing) and Motion (ramps, parachutes, catapults). The current theme this year is Theater. Students have learned about acoustics (sound reverberation vs absorption), costumes and lighting to name a few things!
This is the second year the JLC has led #STEAMSaturdays at Idlewild Elementary in East Charlotte. As an organization, the JLC provides grant money to fund the curriculum and members step into the facilitator role to teach the courses on Saturday mornings from October to May. The JLC operates two classes at Idlewild and have, on average, 25-30 students each Saturday.
Digi-Bridge chair, Nikki Grayon enjoys volunteering with this placement because she likes the tangible impact she’s able to see in direct interaction with the students each weekend and usually walks out of #STEAMSaturdays learning something herself. She says, “Digi-Bridge is one of the few placements where you can ‘try before you buy’” meaning JLC members can volunteer with the committee without having to be part of the committee. Nikki says, “Teaching STEAM initiatives can sound fairly intimidating, especially for someone who doesn’t have a teaching background, so the opportunity to come serve with us and try it out before you commit to a whole year serving on our committee can be really appealing to our membership.” If you are interested in volunteering, reach out Nikki at nikki.grayson@ey.com.
