Why ICI is different from other organizations?

Our belief is that giving the underprivileged students money will only benefit them temporarily; however, giving the students more knowledge will last a lifetime. What sets us apart is: we help the students intellectually, such as inspiring them to do more. An introduction to creativity is a subject rural students are not acquainted with. Students are taught to think of an invention that can improve their living and our living. 
 

"Giving the students knowledge will last a lifetime."

2.3.jpg

Choosing a Location:

We never know what’s next. Whether a school in need is a 30-minute drive away or a 16-hour plane flight, no school is too far because no school is any less deserving of a proper education. We begin the process by reaching out to schools, both domestically and abroad, and assessing how much help they need. 


Preparing the Visit:

Every school is different. Some schools need pencils, while others need notebooks. Some schools can give us four hours for our curriculum, while others can only give us one. We have to tailor our presentations based on the supplies the schools need and the time the schools can give us.

Learning the Process:

Design is creativity made a reality. The next thing that the students learn is the design process. These steps, used in all corners of engineering, were created to help turn ideas into reality. This portion of our presentation is very STEM-intensive and exists to expose the students to these areas. 


Bringing out Creativity:

Creativity is in everyone. We make sure that all of the students know this before anything else. The students learn about different types of creativity, examine how various inventions implement different types of creativity and practice their own creativity in games and puzzles. 


Learning by Doing

This is the fun part. The students, now, get to practice everything they’ve learned up until this point. They think a problem affecting them – glasses that fog, chalk dust in the air, rooms that are too hot – and invent their own solutions using the design process. Sometimes the inventions are silly, sometimes the inventions are technical, but the inventions are always creative.

 

Continuing the Impact

We want to make an impact that lasts. That is why we bring along a couple other students to not only learn from the presentation, but also to learn the presentation. One such example is teaching student in Beijing, China to continue on and teach other students in rural China. 

IMG_3616.jpg