Young Thinkers of York Inc

Our students are problem solvers. They solve real problems using science and technology. Young Thinkers of York is an organization of all volunteers including the Executive Director, Ray Ames, which means that 100% of your donation goes toward our hands-on STEM programs for students ages 3-18. Over the past 4 years, Young Thinkers of York has evolved into something special for the City of York...over 800 York students have participated in our programs. COVID has been challenging for us. We were not able to visit the neighborhood schools to do workshops with students as we usually do or host our 1st summer camp. However, in the past 12 months, the RoboThinkers continued to bring home awards from robotics competitions and we were able to start the GEAR Project, create a Jr. RoboThinkers program, continue to work with over 100 preschoolers this past fall, and purchase more technology for students to use. We are looking forward to the reopening of schools in the fall so that we can introduce our additional yearlong STEM programs for students to participate in. By doing so, we hope that our students will take an interest in pursuing a STEM career. From day one, we have been supported by the community through donations, sponsorships, and volunteer hours. With your support today, we are making sure that each of our students has equal access to our programs, activities, and events. We making students become even better students. Together, we can help the next generation have a brighter future.

Who We Are

Young Thinkers of York is well-known in the City of York for our youth robotics programs. Our nonprofit organization was founded in January 2017 to address the need to help disadvantaged students excel in their academic future and increase their interest and awareness in science and technology. We’re exposing as many York students to STEM by providing a hands-on learning environment by using robotics as an educational tool to bring science to life. To date, over 700 York students have participated in our hands-on robotics activities.

This year, we will launch our Young Thinkers STEAM Summer Camp for students ages 7-14 at our center. Our camp will not only will help our students develop and improve their mechanical and soft skills, but we also will get our students to learn to think differently as they learn how to solve real problems. Our lessons include open-ended problem-solving activities designed to make learning about STEM through real-life robotics engaging and very fun for our students. Our students demonstrate an increased ability to solve problems and communicate more effectively to their group and in the classroom. It only takes that one life experience to leave a forever lasting positive impact on a young person’s life.

Young Thinkers of York also participates in FIRST LEGO League (FLL), an international STEM robotics program that provides our students with unique and exciting opportunities to learn about science and technology through robotics. Our team, the RoboThinkers, is unique because we are the only competitive FLL program in the City of York, our program is year-round, and our new team is an all-girls team again. This is a free program we offer to York students ages 9-14. We have received 10 awards over the past 3 years.

Our programs are designed to increase interest in STEM-related careers which can provide our students with a productive and successful future career.