JACK TIAN
Most weekends, student-athletes can be found practicing their sports at the brand new Portola High School campus. In a sense, the Jeffrey Trail Science Olympiad invitational was no different, except that rather than competing with their bodies, middle school students competed with their minds – all 1200 of them. However this year, something was different. As the middle schoolers launched their bottle rockets and flew their balsa gliders in the main gym, a group of elementary kids were flying their own balsa gliders and paper airplanes. In fact, like the middle schoolers, these elementary schoolers were competing for the Science Olympiad medals awarded for the longest flying balsa glider and paper airplanes. This competition was part of a new outreach program, the product of a partnership between Jeffrey Trail Science Olympiad and Aerovate, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering elementary and middle school students in STEAM through exciting competition.
We run many events similar to the one at Jeffrey Trail. After the Science Olympiad event, a parent of a competitor commented, “Normally, when it comes to anything educational, my kid is itching to get out. Today, he was begging to stay.” Nevertheless, Aerovate isn’t just about the elementary students it hosts competitions for. It is also a learning experience for the high school students volunteers involved. Aerovate strives to teach its volunteers essential soft skills such as teamwork, communication, and responsibility. Aerovate has taught me the importance of good ] Above all, volunteers have fun, instilling a lifelong appreciation for service. Since our beginning, we have impacted close to 2000 students, volunteers, and adults through our airplane competitions, fun lessons, and community service events. We now have multiple chapters in California, Wisconsin, and Taiwan, with each chapter holding events that continue to empower students and their community.
However, our origins were much more humble. Long before founding Aerovate, my journey in aerospace engineering began as a toddler one clear day as I sat on the ground in our eighth floor apartment in St Louis, Missouri. I was looking through the window, and all of a sudden, dozens of huge, colorful, hot-air balloons popped into view and drifted lazily towards the skies. While the beautiful complexity of these feats of engineering eluded me at the time, I still felt an undeniable sense of wonder. In middle school, I competed in the Gliders event in Science Olympiad, where I built balsa gliders to be launched with a slingshot-like contraption. In venues with ceilings over 40 feet, I would be able to stretch the slingshot back as far as my 6th-grader arms would allow, and the glider would shoot to the rafters before majestically gliding back down. This sense of freedom, combined with the wonder of flight and the thrill of winning awards, further amplified my interest in aviation. To this day, I still get the same feeling of exhilaration when watching my glider fly as I did that day looking out the window at the hot-air balloons.
Science Olympiad was a large part of the reason I discovered my interest in aerospace engineering, as I competed frequently in flight events. Reflecting on the competition aspects of Science Olympiad that had pushed me to immerse myself further into the field of aerospace, ultimately creating opportunities for me to discover what I loved, I realized that fun competition would be a great way to introduce participants to STEAM. However, unlike Science Olympiad, I wanted Aerovate to be student-run so that we could benefit both the competitors and volunteers. Having experience with organizational management is a rare opportunity for many students. I sought to provide high school students with an opportunity to gain this experience by having them run Aerovate. In addition, Science Olympiad is a team event that not everyone has access to, either because their school doesn’t have a team, or because they don’t make it past tryouts for the team. By making Aerovate open to all students, I hoped to create accessible learning opportunities that were fun and educational.
With this idea in mind, I started the organization with the name Aerolympiad as a homage to Science Olympiad. However, when I tried to incorporate my organization with the government, I was told that my use of the word Olympiad violated the Olympic trademark. After talking with the Olympic committee, I changed the name to Aerovate, a combination of the stem Aero and the word “elevate.” Helping kids learn through friendly competition and fun activities, while building a community of lifelong learners, is Aerovate’s mission.
At first, I had a hard time pursuing this mission. Since I was on summer break, the only way I could reliably reach people was through social media. In that time frame, I became a master at both sliding into people’s DM’s and handling rejection. After countless “I’m busy this summer” texts, I was able to get a few people interested in my idea, and we decided to hold a summer event for elementary and middle school students — a fun workshop where we explained some simple aerodynamic concepts, followed by a paper airplane and glider competition. These initial members told their friends about Aerovate, and we soon had a sizeable group of volunteers. To raise money, I created a website at https://aeronauticsolympiad.godaddysites.com/ and reached out to countless local businesses such as Dick Blick Art Supplies, Sonic, and Lee’s Review. In addition to emailing businesses, several other volunteers and I walked into various local stores and asked the store managers for contributions. Before Aerovate, I was always shy, especially around strangers, because I was too scared of rejection. However, I knew that I was committed to Aerovate and that I would need to overcome my personal obstacles for us to succeed, so I just gritted my teeth and grinded through it. As we grew more comfortable approaching strangers, many of the no’s turned into yes’s and soon, we were floored by the amount of support we received. The community was eager to help us with our event, either by donating food or art supplies, or making monetary contributions. Today, we have fifteen official sponsors who have helped us raise over two thousand dollars, and it’s shown me the greater sense of responsibility I have to stretch each of those precious dollars to make every one count. As such, I’ve learned to allocate and save in what ways we could, whether that be ironing own logos onto our club t-shirts, instead of paying for the extra service, or building a stronger rapport with local businesses and negotiating discounts. It was encouraging to see people come together to support such a meaningful cause.
Finally, the event day arrived, and with it over 50 elementary and middle schoolers ready to learn and compete. Trophies were handed out for the top three flight times in the paper airplane and balsa glider competitions, as well as the most artistic paper airplanes. We also had the fortune of having the former chairman of the LA County Aviation Commission, Dennis Lord, overseeing five county airports fly over to give a speech and hand out awards. Jeffrey Trail Science Olympiad coach happened to be in attendance and, after witnessing our successful turnout, he invited us to run a competition at the Jeffrey Trail Science Olympiad event in February, which we gladly accepted. This impressed upon me deeply the importance of making new connections–between young and old, technologically-savvy and otherwise, businessmen and public servants, mentor and students Bolstered by the success of our first competition, we reached out to local schools and libraries to host more activities, such as a paper airplane carnival game at the Golden Hills Elementary Harvest Festival, and a paper airplane workshop at the Anaheim Mobile Library. The event organizers were thrilled and invited us back the next year. Soon, I encouraged my friends from Wisconsin, where I lived before moving to California, to start a chapter, holding a paper airplane workshop at their local library. As our numbers and range have grown, so too has the scope of our focus. While our core mission is still centered on exposing young people to STEM through inspiring and constructive experiences, we also partner with local homeless shelters and other non-profit organizations to provide resources for families in need, the homeless, veterans, senior citizens, at-risk youth. During the 2019 holiday season, Aerovate donated toys, books, electronic appliances, clothing, pillows and much more to people in need. Through events like these, Aerovate has grown into what it is today.
When I was young, I would read a lot about science and technology, whether that be through science fiction or science literature, via the likes of Popular Mechanics or Scientific American. In those younger days, I was simply captivated by the visions of tomorrow–the next car of the future, the next airplane of the future, the next big thing that will shake our universe. But after having experienced all that I have throughout my life, I’ve discovered that the glitz and glamour itself is one thing, but the purpose and meaning and intent, to me, is what turns the novelty of an idea or invention into something more. I once read that technology will be the means for humanity to lift all boats, and I’m thoroughly convinced that indeed it has that potential, so long as we keep in mind what it’s ultimately for–each other. Aerovate vindicates that belief. It consolidates in me a grander sense of purpose in my life: to build things that bring people together.
