Our Mission
Our goal is to encourage a love for learning in children and young adults. We want to build relationships while teaching, biking, and sharing our own love for both across America. We believe that education and sports can go hand-in-hand in inspiring students to chase a lifelong love of learning.
who we are
Spokes America was founded in 2013 by a group of students from MIT, Harvard, and Columbia who wanted to bring project-based STEM education to schools across the country. It is a non-profit, student-run initiative as part of an effort to rethink STEM education.
Since 2018, Stanford students have been joining in on the effort. The Stanford team is currently comprised of 7 Stanford students ranging from rising sophomores to graduate students. We all came to Stanford to pursue our passions. Now we hope to share that knowledge with others and inspire future generations to do the same. Check out our team to learn more about each one of us! This is the fourth year that Stanford students are organizing their own Spokes America trip.
what we do
Each summer, a new Spokes team bikes across the United States from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. over the span of 10 weeks. Along the way, we host multi-day learning festivals for over 250 K-12 students at local schools, libraries, and other teaching sites. Our workshops are hands-on, project-based lessons in fields like computer science, sociology, history, art, physics, and feminist, gender, and sexuality studies. Each hour-long workshop encourages students to deep dive into topics they are interested in and walk away having learned something new.
WHY WE DO IT
““[A child’s] race, zip code, or socioeconomic status should never determine their STEM fluency. We must give all children the opportunity to be college-ready and to thrive in a modern STEM economy.””
“Spokes brings a whole new level of excitement and level of expertise and experience to the area. And our kids desperately need that because they don’t get it in school.””
why bike?
You might be wondering at this point: what does biking have to do with education?
Our goal is to build strong, lasting relationships in the communities we pass through and empower students to explore their interest in learning. Biking is a crucial part of this approach to education: when we bike, we meet communities where they are, on the ground. Unlike driving or flying, biking requires that you are completely immersed and present in your surroundings at all times. You are consistently asking for help from different communities; you are listening in on perspectives and backgrounds unlike your own; you are experiencing different ways of life than you are used to.
We are committed to breaking stereotypes, pushing our own boundaries, and engaging with local communities across the country. Help us achieve that goal this summer.