STEM Outreach Corps
The STEM Outreach Corps is an extracurricular service learning opportunity offered by Wake Downtown each spring semester. Each spring, we recruit 12-16 WFU undergraduate students with a desire to share their passion for the sciences with 5th and 6th grade students at the Boys & Girls Club and 4th-9th grade students at Big Brothers Big Sisters.
At the beginning of the spring semester, corps members attend an opening retreat at Wake Downtown to learn from local experts about communicating science and effectively engaging the community. For the remainder of the first half of the spring semester, members work in small groups to prepare a 90-minute hands-on STEM activity to engage 5th and 6th grade students at The Salvation Army Ken Carlson Red Shield Youth Center. For the semester’s remaining five weeks, members visit the afterschool program one day each week from 4:30-6:00 p.m. to lead their activity, serve as mentors to the students, and assist other groups with their lesson plan. During each weekly session, one group will lead their lesson plan and the other groups of WFU students will help facilitate the STEM activity.
In Spring 2025, the STEM Outreach Corps closed the program by hosting a STEM Night with six activity stations centered around engineering, computer science, chemistry, medicine, biology, and physics at the Red Shield Youth Center.
Additionally, we hosted another STEM Night at Big Brothers Big Sisters in late April offering the same activities. For these STEM Night events, the STEM Outreach Corps partnered with the WFU Minority Association of Pre-Health Students (MAPS). Under the guidance of Dr. Regina Joice Cordy in Wake Forest’s Department of Biology, students from MAPS put together “Geek Kits” full of science supplies for the kids to take home to further foster their STEM interests.
Interested in joining the 2026 STEM Outreach Corps?
If you would like to be added to an interest list for future semesters of the STEM Outreach Corps, please reach out to the current Wake Downtown Fellow, Erin McCollum (mccoel20@wfu.edu). You will receive information about how to apply when the application opens in the Fall.
STEM Outreach Corps Members
Wake Downtown Fellow (2024-25): Erin McCollum
| Student Name | Year at Wake | Lesson Topic |
| Adi Mulabagal | Sophomore | DNA / Biology |
| Ana Baez | Junior | Acid-Base Chemistry |
| Claire Kroeger | Sophomore | Acid-Base Chemistry |
| Conner Cobb | Senior | DNA / Biology |
| Deven Bhatnagar | Senior | DNA / Biology |
| Dylan Kane | First-Year | Engineering a Boat |
| Emma LeBaron | Senior | Engineering a Boat |
| James Oparinde | Junior | Disease Outbreak |
| Melody Moossavi | Junior | Engineering a Boat |
| Morgan Galvin | Senior | Acid-Base Chemistry |
| Sonia Luhana | Sophomore | Disease Outbreak |
| Vibha Bhaskar | First-Year | Disease Outbreak |
Wake Downtown Fellow (2022-23): Jordan Buzzett
| Student Name | Year at Wake | Lesson Topic |
| Aryan Pasricha | Sophomore | Engineering a Bridge |
| Claire Deighan | Junior | Disease Spread |
| David Keith | Junior | Engineering a Bridge |
| Eliza White | Sophomore | Disease Spread |
| Ella Irvin | Junior | Dissecting a Flower |
| Grace Benfield | Sophomore | Environmental Science (Oil Spill) |
| Grace Peters | Junior | Dissecting a Flower |
| Jackson Odom | Sophomore | Environmental Science (Oil Spill) |
| Lakyn Mathis | Senior | Disease Spread |
| Layne Sheehan | First-Year | Environmental Science (Oil Spill) |
| Lily Getter | Sophomore | Dissecting a Flower |
| Madeline Faust | Junior | Disease Spread |
| Natalie Ellis | Senior | Dissecting a Flower |
| Tyler Hoel | Junior | Environmental Science (Oil Spill) |
| Victor Ringheanu | Senior | Engineering a Bridge |
| Wes Brooks | Senior | Engineering a Bridge |
Applications for the Spring 2025 cohort of the STEM Outreach Corps have closed, but please stay tuned for information about joining the Spring 2026 cohort.