Testimonials

Kathleen Davis, President, Students of Granada, Nicaragua

“A tremendous thank you to The Community Bots and in particular, Jack Cooley and Karen Orozco, for an incredible two weeks of training at Escuela Carlos Bravo – a nucleus public school serving more than 900 students in the heart of Granada, Nicaragua. Our dream to introduce robotics programming to underserved communities here was realized despite the challenges facing Nicaragua during the last 18 months. Equipment donations from The Community Bots and their partner, John Richardson of St. Joseph Academy, enabled us to implement a 160-hour digital literacy program to students and teachers prior to the robotics training. The Community Bots generous donation of LEGO robotics kits made it possible to enrol 35 students in the robotics program and ultimately paved the way for an ongoing after-school program that has committed to competing in the LEGO World Robot Olympiad. It was a pleasure to watch master teachers at work — Jack and Karen — not only maintained student and teacher engagement for the entire two weeks but did so in a way that educators here can apply new teaching and learning strategies in their classrooms. The course design itself was superb — integrating hands-on activities with contextual and motivational presentations — helping to build girls’ confidence in their abilities and understanding more about opportunities in the technology sectors. The Community Bots model is powerful. They plant the seeds and empower educators and students to take control of their future learning. In our case, our students and teachers have never used computers and are now on their way to building a model that all public schools in Nicaragua can duplicate. This is truly life-changing. Thank you Jack, Karen, John, and The Community Bots.”

Testimonials

Ronnie Maher, Executive Director, NicaPhoto, Nicaragua

“The Community Bots is an incredible program that brings STEM Robotics training to girls in disadvantaged communities. When Jack and Ana presented the idea of coming to Nicaragua to teach our middle school age girls robotics at NicaPhoto and to train our teachers, we were thrilled with the idea. We selected a group of 25 girls to participate. The girls ranged from very good students in the public school to students that have a variety of difficulties ranging from emotional to academic. The program engaged ALL of the girls and kept their interest and attention. I was impressed to see even the students with the most difficulty in school doing the math calculations on the fly, participating in the discussions, and excelling in the class. During the week, the girls had a day off from school and were scheduled for robotics class from 8am – 12pm. The girls decided as a group to ask Jack and Ana if they could have robotics class ALL day because they didn’t have school. The critical thinking and love of learning was wonderful to watch develop during the week. The project-based curriculum is formidable. Jack and Ana are both remarkable teachers and incredibly kind and generous. It was an inspirational week for all involved, and we are grateful to know Jack and Ana and for the opportunity to participate in The Community Bots program.”

Testimonials

Azucena Contreras, STEM-Robotics Program Coordinator, and Judith Álvarez, English and Robotics Teacher

“We want to express our sincere gratitude to The Community Bots for traveling to NicaPhoto. The advanced STEM-robotics training you provided has not only enriched us but has also equipped us with the skills necessary to bring our program to the next level. With the latest robotics equipment on hand thanks to your generous donations along with  the advanced programming skills we have learned, we are now even more confident in our success at the upcoming national competitions.”

Testimonials

The idea of STEM-robotics for girls in a community that still uses oxcarts for transportation, and girls rarely study STEM careers, is so progressive. We are incredibly grateful to The Community Bots for supplying CREA with all the equipment for our girls to participate in the STEM-robotics program. Over the last year, Jack and Sherazada trained our staff virtually in using CoderZ and in how to teach our students to use this gamified coding platform that combines STEM, computer science, and critical life skills in order to prepare for robotics training this summer with The Community Bots. The training was invaluable and prepared us for the two weeks they spent at CREA with five CREA teachers and 25+ girls. We are excited about our journey into STEM-robotics to help our girls learn to think creatively and critically, develop their problem-solving abilities, and learn science and math concepts practically. It is already helping the girls develop teamwork and collaboration skills, try new things, and perhaps most importantly, learn to overcome failure. Thank you Community Bots.”